


The Warmth of Home

by afinepricklypear



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Attempted Sexual Assault, Drama, Eventual Romance, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Family Feels, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Sexual Content, Sexual Violence - adding just to be safe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-01-04 01:37:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 44,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21189413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinepricklypear/pseuds/afinepricklypear
Summary: In a world without Kings and Clans, middle-school aged Yata Misaki's parents die in a tragic accident. In the wake of his grief, he's forced to quit school and take up part-time jobs to support his younger siblings. Four years later, he thinks his life might be taking a turn for the better when he's offered a decent paying housekeeping position for a wealthy family.The Fushimi Estate is large and mostly empty. Hardly anyone is ever home between the lady of the house traveling the world for business, her husband gallivanting about for fun, and their teenage son living in dorms at Ashinaka High School. At least, that's what Yata is told.





	1. Chapter 1

Dawn rose over the Yata household but it wasn’t enough to stir the oldest child, Yata Misaki, from his blissful dreams of being a skateboarding champion worshipped by the entire world. His alarm blaring rock music at his ear wasn’t enough either. Nor was his screaming baby sister downstairs or his toddler aged little brother banging toys together. It wasn’t until his mother burst through his door and dumped water on his face that he bolted upright in bed.

“What the hell…” he sputtered.

“Watch your language, young man,” his mother boomed, “And get your butt out of bed! I’ve been calling for you to come down and help with the little ones for the past half hour.”

“Ugh…but mom,” Misaki protested. His mother looked around his room with disgust. There was a stack of scattered notebooks in the center of the floor topped with a video game, a pile of dirty laundry, a towel spread out to one side of the room with a skateboard missing two wheels and tiny repair parts laid on top.

“Look at this disaster!” his mother tapped her foot on the ground and glared at him, “I told you to clean this place yesterday. What happened?”

“I…I was working on homework,” Misaki lied. His mother raised a brow at him. “Some of its Minoru’s mess!”

It was true that the toys splayed out in the left corner of the room belonged to the younger Yata brother. His mother noted it, wrinkling her nose as she plucked up a plastic dinosaur sticky with some sweet-smelling gunk.

“Minoru is three years old and you are twelve! You have to be more responsible than a three-year-old, Misaki,” she screamed, “I need your help looking after them, but I spend more time looking after you!”

“That’s not fair. Why do I have to be responsible for them? We’re not even completely related, can’t _their_ dad help,” Misaki complained. He knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment his mother’s face turned white and her expression looked like she’d been punched in the gut.

“Get out of bed and get ready for school,” she said between clenched teeth and marched from the room.

Misaki fell back into bed, arm across his face. He groaned. Things were so much easier when it was just him and his mom. They had a good rhythm, they could count on each other, and they were one another’s entire world. Then that guy came along, and sure, Misaki was glad that his mom was happy but he didn’t have a place in that man’s world like his mom did, and then Minoru was born and she had less time for Misaki. Once the baby, Megumi, came, they’re family was complete and Misaki was the awkward growth on the side. He tossed the covers away and searched for his school uniform amongst the piles.

Downstairs, his mother was attempting to feed the baby and pack their school lunches at the same time. Minoru was wearing his empty food bowl as a hat.

“We’ll be gone when you get back from school. Miss Tegui is going to watch Megumi until you get home. You’ll be okay to pick Minoru up? You remember which class is his?” Misaki’s mom said. She had her back to Misaki and her voice stiff.

“Ah…oh…why am I…?” Misaki mumbled, scratching the back of his head.

“You’re unbelievable. You forgot?” his mom gave a disappointed sigh, “Of course you forgot. Your step-father has that business in the countryside. We’re only going to be gone for the one night. We’ll be back in the morning.”

“I don’t want Misaki! I want mommy,” Minoru cried.

“Oh, don’t cry, my little dumpling, it’s only going to be for today,” Misaki’s mom soothed, crossing over to take the bowl off the top of Minoru’s head. Misaki made a face at the smaller boy. She put a hand on her hip and gave Misaki a skeptical once over. “Can I actually trust you to do this?”

“Wh-what? Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“I’m serious, Misaki. I’ve got too many children in the house, right now, and between getting in fights at school, bringing home bad grades, and not helping with any of the chores, you’re the worst. I need you to start acting your age,” Misaki’s mother paused and bit her lower lip, “About what you said, upstairs…I wish you wouldn’t feel that way…they are your brother and sister, and they need to know they can rely on you…”

“It’s one day, right? Why are you making such a big fuss,” Misaki scowled, “All I gotta do is feed them dinner and put them to bed. How hard can that be?”

“Breakfast in the morning, also. Watch them, you can’t take your eyes off them. And make sure to give them both baths, and brush their teeth too. Help Minoru with his homework, make sure he takes his asthma medicine,” she crossed to the refrigerator and tapped her finger on a sheet of paper with a list of things to do written in her neat hand, “I made a note in case you forget anything. But your step-father will have his PDA, so call us if you need anything.”

Misaki rolled his eyes. “Right, whatever. I’m leaving first.”

“Wait, Misaki, don’t forget your lunch,” his mom grabbed a bento box that she hadn’t yet wrapped up, scrambling to put the furoshiki around it.

“Forget it, I’ll just get something from the convenience store on the way,” Misaki insisted, his cheeks growing warm as he hurried for the exit. His mom still packed him cute bento boxes like a little kid, punching out shapes from the vegetables and arranging them into cartoon characters. The other students at school poked fun of him for it.

“Oh, but wait, Misaki, be good…”

He shut the door on her last words, wishing he’d had the chance to finish repairs on his skateboard the night before. He’d gotten distracted, as usual, by his bratty little brother – _half_-brother – stealing the parts and losing them around the room. Misaki had given up when Minoru lost one of the wheels, and their mother came up to separate them after Misaki started shouting while Minoru cried. Now he had to walk the whole way to school and he was already running late.

…

There were still five minutes to the first bell when Misaki found his three friends crouched behind the school bleachers. They were huddled together and speaking in low whispers when he approached. He grinned and, they startled when he yelled, “There you guys are, I’ve been looking everywhere!”

“Oh great, he found us,” Hiroshi mumbled, as they each rose to their feet and faced him. Hiroshi, Kenichi, and Tatsuda were all taller than Misaki and not especially creative when it came to games, but Misaki didn’t mind. His family had moved to the region at the beginning of the school year, to be nearer to his step-father’s workplace, and these had been the three Misaki chose as friends. They had gone to the same elementary school together, so they had known one another for a few years before Misaki came along and took them under his wing.

“Sorry I’m so late,” Misaki laughed, rubbing the back of his head and ruffling the light auburn colored strands, “We still have time to play Battle Game, though. Yata-Team Assemble!”

As though on queue, the bell rang overhead, and the boys exchanged looks.

“Guess not,” Kenichi muttered. They brushed past a crestfallen Misaki, heading towards the school.

“Oh…lunchtime, then,” Misaki declared, hurrying to catch up.

In the hall outside of class, the students were gathered around. Their grades had been posted for the mid-semester exams. Misaki hung back, eying the board warily with a lurch in his stomach. He knew he hadn’t done well. Even with every intention in the world to study, he couldn’t make sense of his notes. He’d decided to take a break from deciphering them and play a video game, but ended up stuck on a difficult dungeon and, knowing he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on schoolwork until he finished it, he kept at the game. It took him the entire night to complete the dungeon, and by then, there was no more time to study.

Hiroshi and the others moved through the crowd to get a look at the board, and curious where they placed, Misaki swallowed down his pride and followed. He glanced the bottom of the list but didn’t see his name. A small bit of hope leaped in his chest. Did he place closer to the middle?

“That guy is first again,” some of the students were complaining, “He hardly ever shows up for class. How does he always top first?”

Misaki’s eyes trailed up to the first-place name on the list and conjured an image of the gloomy looking boy with black-rimmed glasses that sat in the back of class. Misaki skimmed the rest of the list for his friends or even his own name. His brow wrinkled.

“Did I miss them…?” he started looking at the bottom and moving towards the top this time, not noticing as the crowd began to disperse for their rooms, until he began to exclaim, “Hey I don’t see our names…” and found he was speaking to an empty hall.

The second bell rang overhead, and Misaki winced. He was late for class. Again. He attempted turning and running at the same time, only to slam head first into the back of a taller figure. They both crashed to the floor. Stunned, Misaki rubbed the sore spot on his forehead where he’d connected, before his eyes snapped open and he realized he was seated atop another boy. He scrambled back to his feet, extending a hand.

“So-so-sorry! I didn’t see you,” Misaki said, “Are you hurt? I can take you to the nurse if you’re hurt!”

The other boy regarded Misaki’s hand with a cold stare, ignoring it. He found his glasses – which had been knocked off in the collision – and repositioned them on his face. He picked himself off the ground and gathered his things.

“Ah…Fushimi Saruhiko, right? Congratulations on taking first,” Misaki tried again, “You take first all the time, huh? That’s really impressive!”

There was a flash of dark colored eyes on Misaki, swirling with a strange look of confusion, before flickering to the board of exam grades behind him. The boy gave a sharp click of his tongue and wordlessly moved towards their classroom. Misaki blinked a few times, watching the boy disappear into the room, heart racing and cheeks flush with color. He wasn’t sure how to feel, angry or annoyed.

“What a complicated guy,” Misaki grumbled, and then, eyes widening, remembered himself, “I’m late!”

Inside of the room, Misaki was surprised to find class hadn’t yet begun. The students were all laughing and joking with one another. Misaki’s eyes found Fushimi Saruhiko settling into his seat at the back of the room and he flustered again. _Jerk_. He found his friends next, standing at the teacher’s desk with their heads lowered. The teacher noticed Misaki standing in the doorframe.

“Yata Misaki,” the teacher boomed, and Misaki couldn’t help noticing that Fushimi guy turning to look at him, “Over here. Now.”

“Ah…oh yeah, sorry I’m late,” Misaki said, wandering towards the teacher’s desk, “I got caught up looking for my exam grade. Hey, it wasn’t on the list. Was there a misprint or…?”

“Drop it already, Mister Yata, your friends have already confessed. They’ve told me everything,” the teacher placed his hands on his hips and glared down his nose at Misaki. Misaki looked to the three other boys in surprise. What was there to confess? Did they know he’d spent the entire night before the exam stuck on a dungeon level instead of studying? “I knew something was up when these three all got the same exact answers on the exams.”

“Same answers…” Misaki wrinkled his brow and tipped his head to one side, puzzling over the words. Maybe they all studied together? He wondered why they hadn’t asked him, but brushed the thought away as soon as it popped up. Of course, they looked up to him, they must not have realized he would need study time too.

“They somehow obtained an answer key and cheated. I figured it had to be you, useless delinquent. They never would’ve done something like this before you came to the school,” the teacher seethed, “You may as well admit it.”

“Cheated,” Misaki repeated numbly. His arms and legs felt leaden “…but my test answers were…”

“You think you’re clever, forcing them to use the stolen answer key and not using it yourself,” the teacher roared, folding his arms over his chest, “They already explained everything. That you were the one who stole it and you threatened them to make them use it on the test. There’s no point in lying, I already knew it was you anyhow.”

Misaki looked to his friends, carefully avoiding his eyes. He frowned. They really needed him to help them out here, he realized. They were relying on him. It didn’t matter if he denied things anyways, it seemed the teacher had already decided his guilt. Regardless, he was always in trouble with little hope of getting into high school, it wouldn’t be a big deal if he took the blame. His friends would suffer more than him, otherwise, and, after all, good friends protected one another. He took a deep breath and nodded.

“Okay…it was me,” Misaki mumbled. The three boys beside him looked up in surprise. He shrugged and sighed, “I got the answer key and thought it would be cool if we all used it but lost my nerve during the exam.”

“You’ll all receive zeroes for the exam. Yata, you’ll serve clean-up duties for the rest of the semester,” the teacher declared, “And I will be calling your parents.”

Misaki’s mouth twitched into a small frown as he recalled his mother’s lecture that morning. They all shuffled to their seats.

…

By lunch, Misaki’s stomach was growling. In his rush to get out of the house, he’d skipped breakfast and forgotten to grab his wallet. Misaki wondered if he could ask one of his friends to lend him money. They’d been distant since the morning talk with the teacher, but he was sure they’d want to thank him for his help, by sharing parts of their lunch with him.

The class had split up to work on a new assignment, but Misaki hadn’t paid much attention to what they were doing. He had remained sitting at his desk staring out the window, watching a flock of birds fly by instead. Now he had no idea where his friends had taken off to, but he was sure they’d come back to the classroom to find him.

“You’re rather unconcerned for someone who just received a zero on mid-semester exams,” said a dull voice behind him.

Misaki startled, turned to stare blankly at the only other person in their corner of the room. From the look of Fushimi Saruhiko, Misaki might’ve sworn he was hearing voices, because there was no way that boy had made a comment to him. Fushimi was messing around on his PDA, punching away at the keys while colorful images flashed on the screen and reflected off his glasses. His expression was bored, he didn’t even look interested in the game that he was playing. There was an unopened energy bar and carbonated juice on the desk in front of him. Misaki’s stomach lurched, reminding him that he didn’t have anything to eat.

“Ah…are you…” Misaki glanced around the room once, and gaped at Fushimi, “Are you talking to me?”

Fushimi clicked his tongue at something on the PDA screen and set it down. He turned his eyes up to meet Misaki’s and a shiver raced up Misaki’s spine. He’d never seen someone look so intense.

“Is there anyone else here that was given a zero for cheating?” Fushimi replied.

“Oh, yeah, that,” Misaki ran a hand over the back of his neck sheepishly, “My friends and I…”

“Your friends?” Fushimi repeated coolly, some kind of emotion passing over his eyes that was dark and chaotic, frightening and calming, all at once. Misaki was forced to drop his focus on his hands, his cheeks were hot with color.

“Yeah, my friends…they were…”

“What friends?”

“Hiroshi and the others,” Misaki snapped, growing impatient, “They’re my friends and…”

“Then why are you alone at lunch? Where are they?” Fushimi continued. He’d picked his PDA back up, as though he’d lost interest in the conversation that he’d started.

“I…I don’t…” Misaki glanced around the room. A few of the students were looking at him and whispering, they turned away quickly when his eyes swept over them. His eyes fell on a familiar object. He crossed over a couple desks to pick it up. “They’re probably looking for me. This is Tatsuda’s PDA. I’ll use it to call them.”

“Are you sure you should do that?” Fushimi mused. He’d put his own PDA down again and was watching Misaki with a new sparkle of interest in his eyes.

“Of course, he won’t mind. We’re friends. Friends lend each other things like this all the time,” Misaki explained, opening the main screen of the PDA. Tatsuda had left a messaging app open and Misaki’s brow wrinkled when he caught his name in the jumble of characters. He vaguely noticed that Fushimi had come to stand at his shoulder as he caught a few of the things written about him. It appeared to be a chatroom with Hiroshi, Kenichi, Tatsuda, and a couple others from another class that he didn’t know.

_Hiroshi: That Yata Misaki is so annoying. He’s such a show off._

_Awagawa: I can’t believe he covered for you guys this morning._

_Tatsuda: He did it for praise. He’s pathetic._

_Kenichi: We should hide in the library at lunch. He definitely won’t find us there._

“Message app, huh? What’s wrong?” Fushimi said at Misaki’s ear, close enough that Misaki could feel the other boy’s breath on his neck. Misaki closed out of the PDA and clutched it against his chest as though to hide the already blackened screen. His cheeks and eyes were burning, he was having trouble seeing. “They were talking about you, weren’t they?”

“N-n-no. No, they weren’t. That’s not it,” Misaki blinked a few times to clear his eyes.

“You didn’t even know they were cheating on the exam. They set you up to take the fall,” Fushimi continued. Something about the way he said it felt like a knife twisting in Misaki’s gut.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Misaki stammered, hurrying from the room, “I remembered…that’s it…I remembered just now that w-we were meeting…somewhere…is all. They’re waiting for me, I should go.”

Misaki slammed into one of the bathroom stalls and locked the door firm behind him. He felt like he might throw up, tears were already forming in his eyes. He realized he still had the PDA in his hand, and with a sick kind of interest he wondered what the rest of the messages said about him. He dropped the toilet lid closed and plopped down on it, drawing his knees up to his chest. He chewed on his thumbnail and stared at the blank, black screen of the PDA. With trembling fingers, he opened it back up. He scrolled through the messages, until the cruel words about him became a blur.

_Childish…loser…thinks he’s some leader…obnoxious…loud-mouth…short-tempered…pint-sized brat…_

By the time the bell ending lunch rang, Misaki’s hunger had subsided into a distant pang barely notable over the strained throb of his heartbeat. This was how they’d felt all along. They hated him and, oblivious, he’d continued to force himself on them. He really was a terrible person. He didn’t know if he could muster the will to go back to the class and face any of them. Maybe he could apologize, he thought, make them understand that he hadn’t meant to hurt them. Maybe they’d forgive him, if he just explained it to them. It was all a misunderstanding; he wasn’t this hateful person. If he talked to them about it, he could make them see.

A new message popped up in the chat from Hiroshi: _Have any of you seen Tatsuda’s PDA?_

Misaki stepped out of the bathroom and, with eyes downcast, entered the classroom. Everyone’s eyes were on him, he was late and the teacher was saying something about it, but he couldn’t lift his gaze. This was the worst feeling in the world, he was certain of it. There was nothing that could be worse than this. He moved slowly back and wordlessly placed Tatsuda’s PDA on his desk in passing. He took his seat and lay his head in his folded arms.

The teacher resumed the lesson, the lecture and whispers of his fellow students merging into a buzzing in the background. He just wanted to fade away, disappear back to the place where he and his mom had each other, and he knew who his friends were at school, and everyone liked him. Why did she have to marry that man and have his children? Why couldn’t he have been enough? Now he didn’t have anywhere to belong or anyone that liked him. It was all their fault. That man and his children. They took his mom away and left him with nothing.

It took him several moments to realize the teacher was calling his name. He lifted his eyes up to barely see over his folded arms. There was a person standing at the front of the room with the teacher, and the teacher had a slip of paper in his hand. Everyone was staring at Misaki. He wondered what they could possibly want from him now. The clock hanging at the front of the room indicated the school day was close to over.

“Yata Misaki,” the teacher repeated once more, impatience straining his voice, “Get to the front of class, now. They want you at the front office.”

“Ah…oh…” Misaki stood up and started towards the person by his teacher. A middle-aged woman with her hair twisted into a bun on top of her head. He recognized her as the principle’s secretary.

“You’ll need to bring your things,” the woman said. The other students were whispering around him.

“…what did he do this time?”

“…he’s such a delinquent…”

“…why doesn’t he drop out already, no one even wants him here…”

Misaki nodded slowly. He turned to pick his back up, catching a glimpse of dark, intense eyes, silently watching him, and his heart tripped over its next beat. He gathered his bookbag and continued to the front of the room.

“What is it that the principle wants?” Misaki asked, trying to sound confident despite the slight hitch in his words.

The woman’s eyes darted from Misaki to the rest of the class. She tried to keep her voice low as she answered, but the students at the front could hear, “It’s not the principle. There are police here for you.”

Misaki paled considerably. His stomach dropping out beneath him. What had he done?

Once the door closed behind them, the classroom erupted into excited whispers. He tried to ignore it, as he followed the woman back to the principle’s office. Fear stagnating his movements, spreading through his chest, as he ran though his mind all the things he’d done lately. Nothing that he could remember would require the police to show up, but as promised, there were officers waiting in the principle’s office when they arrived.

“If…if this is about the fence I broke at Mister Shio’s place, it was an accident, my skateboard got out from under me, and I already told that old man I’d fix it!” Misaki blurted out, “And…and I didn’t have anything to do with the spray paint disappearing from the maintenance shed outside…everyone thinks it was me, but I really didn’t…and…and…”

“Young man, calm down, we’re not here for anything you did,” one of the officers said, raising his voice to be heard over Misaki’s nervous ramblings.

Misaki fell silent, his brow drawing together in confusion, “You aren’t? Then…why?”

The other officer looked away, and the first took his hat off his head and lowered his eyes as he spoke.

“It’s about your parents…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For now, there are OC characters that will have large roles, but eventually I'm going to try to incorporate all of the K Project characters -- mostly Scepter 4 and HOMRA. Um...also, I guess I should put some kind of Yata-whump warning, probably. These first several chapters especially, and things don't get easier when he meets Fushimi because...well, Fushimi is Fushimi. Cross-posting this story on FF.net


	2. Chapter 2

_It was quick_.

The words stuck in Misaki’s mind, even as everything else faded into nothing but a high-pitched ringing. They were meant to be a comfort, to assure him that his mother and step-father hadn’t suffered painfully in their final moments. All he could think of it though was how one second they were there and the next they weren’t.

Quick.

No chance to say good-bye.

No chance to give last words of wisdom.

No chance to see their children one last time.

One second there, the next gone.

It was quick.

The officers explained that they would escort Misaki home and go over the next steps with him. He trailed after them out the front of the school towards their marked vehicle. They opened the door for him and he fell into the backseat. It reeked of sweat and mildew.

“Minoru,” he murmured, when the officer in the driver seat started the car. The two men up front paused and looked back at him.

“What’s that?”

“My little brother. Minoru. I’m supposed to pick him up after school today,” Misaki felt exhausted just getting those words out.

The officers agreed that they could stop on the way. It was only a few minutes’ drive to Minoru’s elementary school. One of the officer’s said he would go in to retrieve the younger Yata brother.

“Do you know which class he’s in?”

Misaki opened his mouth to answer and frowned, shaking his head, a heavy weight settling over him. He’d never really committed it to memory, no matter how many times his mother asked him to go pick the younger boy up.

“I’ll figure it out,” the officer said and disappeared from the car.

The other officer turned in his seat to look at Misaki, “Are there any other siblings that we need to get?”

Misaki shook his head slowly. The officer sighed and turned back around in his seat. They waited in silence for the other officer to return with a teacher leading Minoru by the hand. He looked uncertain until he saw Misaki. He climbed eagerly up into the backseat and on top of Misaki’s lap. Misaki groaned but didn’t say anything. His words caught in his throat when the little boy grinned and declared, “We’re taking a ride in a cop car!”

Reaching home, they found the baby inside with Miss Tegui, the elderly woman who lived next door, as Misaki’s mother had promised. She didn’t look surprised when Misaki and Minoru came through the door with two police officers in tow, and when her soft, sympathetic eyes found Misaki’s, tears began to stream down her wrinkled cheeks. He passed Minoru off on to her and wandered into the kitchen.

“Is there any next of kin that we can contact for you?” the officers asked. Somewhere in the back of Misaki’s mind, a tiny warning bell rang. They meant adults. Someone to come watch the small children. Miss Tegui had her lips pressed together into a thin line, her eyes were wide.

“No,” Misaki mumbled. His didn’t have any relatives on his mother’s side and he knew nothing of his father’s side. As for his step-father’s parents, they had disowned their son when he married Misaki’s mother. He wouldn’t even know how to contact them if he wanted to. He swallowed down his emotions and lied. “No…I’ll do it.”

“You’ll need to come down to the station to fill out forms and claim the bodies. I’ll write the address down for you,” one of the officers pulled out a pad of paper and started jotting things down. Miss Tegui stood silently by holding Minoru’s hand. The officer ripped the paper from his pad and held it out to Misaki. Shaking, Misaki reached out to take it.

“Thank you,” he said, the words felt like cotton in his mouth.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” the men both murmured before leaving the house.

“You don’t have any next of kin. I know. Your mother told me your family situation,” Miss Tegui said as soon as the officers were gone, “Do you know what happens if they find out?”

Misaki gripped the edge of the counter to keep him steady on his feet.

“They’ll take the babies from you. Separate all of you. You’ll never see your brother and sister again,” Miss Tegui continued. “You can’t let that happen. What are you going to do?”

Misaki chewed his bottom lip, whispering, “I don’t want to think about this right now.”

“You have to think about it. They’re your responsibility,” Miss Tegui insisted. Minoru was squirming in her grip.

“I want to play a game,” Minoru announced, “Misaki let me play the game.”

“Not now,” Misaki said.

“You lied to those officers, so you know what you have to do. I’ll help you out as much as I can, but I’m on a fixed income and it’s just me since my husband passed,” Miss Tegui continued.

“But Misaki, please!” Minoru cried. The baby began to fuss in her high chair. The room was spinning and Misaki couldn’t get a grip. It was all slipping out from under him.

“I said not now,” Misaki screamed, slamming the counter with a fist.

Everyone fell silent except the baby who began screaming at the top of her lungs. Miss Tegui gave a click of her tongue and went to pick the baby up. She bounced the baby in her arms and watched Misaki as he leaned over the counter.

“I know you don’t want to think about it, but things aren’t about what you want anymore. You’re the oldest and your brother and sister need you right now,” Miss Tegui said, “Here, take the baby and go sit in the other room. I’ll make some dinner. I can stay and help you put the little ones to bed tonight.”

Misaki took Megumi from Miss Tegui’s outstretched hands and wandered into the living area. He sat at the kotatsu and held the baby in his lap. Her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt, which she stuck in her mouth and sucked on. He could hear the old woman in the kitchen with Minoru.

“Help me make some dinner for your brother,” she was saying.

“Mommy never lets me in the kitchen,” Minoru replied.

“…need me right now,” Misaki formed the words with his mouth but no sound came out. He closed his eyes and hugged Megumi to him.

_…they are your brother and sister…they need to know they can rely on you._

…

The old woman ended up doing most of the work that night. She didn’t complain about it, watching Misaki out of the corner of her eye as if waiting for him to get up and run from the house. He felt too numb to move. He’d planted himself at the kotatsu and every bit of energy drained out of him. She put a bowl of food in front of him and he stared at it as though he’d forgotten what food was and what he was meant to do with it. She took the baby from him and ate her own dinner. Minoru laughed at Misaki for not eating as he picked rice out of his bowl with his fingers.

After a while, Miss Tegui had Minoru take their bowls to the kitchen, leaving Misaki with his untouched food. She followed Minoru, helping him wash the dishes. She let Minoru go upstairs to get Misaki’s handheld game and he gloated loudly about playing it in front of his older brother and about how his older brother wasn’t going to take it away. Eventually she put the baby and Minoru to bed and came to sit at the kotatsu with Misaki. They were both silent a long while.

“I’ll tell them tomorrow that there is no one to take the little ones,” Misaki finally spoke. His voice sounded dry and harsh from disuse. Miss Tegui stirred but said nothing. “They’re not…I can’t…I’m only twelve. Thirteen in July. What can I do?”

“You know what will happen to them?” Miss Tegui asked in a soft voice.

“They’ll be taken away and I won’t see them again,” Misaki clenched his hands into fists in his lap, “Is that such a bad thing?”

Another stretch of silence.

“They’ll be put in foster care, or a group home,” Miss Tegui explained, “Families might adopt them. Megumi has the better chance. Possibly families oversea.”

“They’ll be taken care of.”

Again, silence.

Miss Tegui stood from the table and took the bowl of untouched food, long since grown cold, from Misaki. She brought it into the kitchen and he could hear her washing the dish. She returned and went to exchange her slippers for outdoor shoes at the front entry.

“I won’t be able to come tomorrow. I have errands in town. You’ll have to go to that address the officer gave you alone with the little ones,” she called over her shoulder. Misaki could hear the front door opening and clicking closed.

For the next hour, Misaki sat alone in the dark with only the sound of his own breathing. He turned the day over in his mind but couldn’t remember anything past that morning, waking up to cold water in the face and his mother's disappointment. That's how he'd always be to her now, a disappointment. There was no way to make it up to her anymore. No more chances to do better. He laid back on the floor to stare at the ceiling. His head was spinning and he was beginning to feel nauseous from it. He closed his eyes in an effort to make it stop.

He didn’t know at what point he fell asleep. He dreamed about riding in the back of a police car, his brother Minoru at the wheel wearing a uniform and laughing gleefully. His mother sat next to him, soaked in a thick, red substance that could only be blood. She kept telling him that she needed his help taking care of the little ones and asking if he would, please, go pick up his little sister from the crib. The siren of the police car wailing sounded a lot like a baby’s screams until Misaki woke up and realized they really were a baby's screams.

“What a weird dream,” He ran his hand over his face in annoyance and wondered why no one was looking in on Megumi, before sitting up and hitting his knees on the kotatsu. His brow wrinkled, “Why am I…” and it all came back to him like a large stone settling on his chest.

Misaki stood up and wandered down the hall to the room his mother shared with his stepfather. The door was open and he could see the crib where Megumi was crying for attention. Everything inside looked the same as normal. The bed was neatly made and there were framed pictures of the family atop a dresser. The air felt stale and there was a chill. He picked up the baby and hurried from the room, taking her to the kitchen where Minoru was already sitting in the pantry pouring dried rice out on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Misaki screamed.

“Helping breakfast,” Minoru explained, tilting the rice box over and reaching for a packet of freeze-dried fish. He began tugging at it with his tiny finger, attempting to rip it open.

“No, no, no, put it down!”

For a moment Misaki ran back and forth, torn between strangling his little brother and what to do with the baby in his arms. Eventually, his brain processed the situation enough that he stuck Megumi in her high chair and grabbing Minoru by the arm. He tugged the little boy from the pantry and they both tripped over the spilled rice bin, the dried fish bag tore apart and fish flew everywhere atop them. The baby started screaming again and Minoru joined her.

“I wanna make breakfast,” Minoru cried, fat tears rolling down his chubby cheeks.

“Dammit, Minoru, I’m covered in fish! What were you thinking? You can’t make breakfast, you’re not helping,” Misaki ranted, “Get up off the floor! You’re taking a bath.”

“I don’t wanna!” Minoru howled.

It took nearly ten minutes for Misaki to wrestle the little boy into the bathroom, grains of rice biting into his bare feet, before realizing he’d left the baby in the kitchen. He started water for the bath and retrieved the baby, but didn’t know where he could put her. He set her on the floor, a blanket spread out underneath her, and went to chase Minoru down again.

“I don’t want a bath! I don’t want a bath!” Minoru kicked and thrashed as Misaki dragged him into the bathroom and struggled to remove his fish stained pajamas.

“Shut up,” Misaki hissed, dunking the little boy into the water.

Minoru screeched, “It’s too cold!” He sank his teeth into Misaki’s hand and Misaki yelped, letting him go. He sprinted down the hall naked and dripping water in his wake. “I want mommy! When is mommy coming home?”

Misaki threw a rag after him and sank to the ground. His hand stung where the little boy had bit him. He rubbed away the tears forming with a fist. Megumi crawled to Misaki and placed her hands on his leg, using it to pick herself up to standing. She wobbled a moment, and fell back down to her bottom. Misaki wrinkled his nose and frowned down at her. He knew the smell meant it was time for a diaper change. As if the morning wasn’t awful enough.

He got Megumi into a new diaper, gritting his teeth and ignoring the rising anxiety over Minoru’s whereabouts in the house. He could hear the little boy laughing and a clatter or crash every now and then. He strapped Megumi to his back and chased Minoru down, tossing him into the bathtub. It was another fight to get him properly scrubbed off, and he was off running again before Misaki could dry him.

Back in the kitchen, Misaki put Megumi back in her chair and decided to work on cleaning up the fish first. Minoru stumbled into the kitchen, still naked, and declared, “I’m hungry.”

“I don’t care,” Misaki grumbled.

“Make me breakfast. Mommy said Misaki has to make breakfast today. Make breakfast,” Minoru complained.

Misaki clenched his jaw. He thought of Miss Tegui sitting at the kotatsu last night and his accusatory look when he said he’d hand the little ones over to the state: _what are you going to do._ What the hell could he do? He couldn’t take care of them. He couldn’t even take care of himself.

“When’s mommy and daddy coming home? They’re supposed to be home today,” Minoru continued whining.

Misaki’s head snapped around and he bit out, “They’re never coming home. They’re dead. Don’t you get it. That’s why the cops brought us home yesterday, idiot. Your mommy and daddy are dead and I’m not making you breakfast, so shut up.”

Minoru’s eyes went wide and Megumi was whimpering again. Misaki slapped a hand to his mouth, horrified by his own words.

“You’re a liar,” Minoru shouted, “Take it back. Liar! I hate you!”

Minoru darted for their bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. Megumi began crying again. Misaki let the broom fall clattering to the floor and collapsed at the table, burying his head in his arms. He took a deep breath and straightened. He would make food and take the little ones to the police, hand them over, and that would be it. Whether it’s a group home or adopted overseas, they’d be better off than with him. That’s what he needed to do and he didn’t need Miss Tegui’s judgement to make everything harder than it already was. Misaki stood and made his way to the fridge, stopping when he saw the note pinned there by his mom, her instructions for while they were away on the trip: _1) Make yummy food, 2) Give Minoru his medicine, 3) Support Megumi in the bath…_

His eyes trailed down the list to the bottom, freezing on the last two instructions his mother would ever give him.

_…remind them that I love them…_

Misaki closed his eyes and took another steadying breath. His heart caught in his throat.

_…remind yourself, I love you too…_


	3. Chapter 3

“Misaki…Misaki….”

Misaki’s eyes fluttered open and back closed again. He sighed, noting that he was on his belly in an awkward position again. He would have a kink in his neck in the morning. He squirmed under his ratty blanket to lay on his side and peeled his eyes open. He searched out the glow of his alarm clock to read the time: 2:17 AM. Only another hour and a half before he had to wake up. The small girl by his bedside had her cheeks puffed out and her eyes wide. She was on her knees, head laid on her hands staring at him.

“Why are you awake, Megumi? Go back to bed.” Misaki grumbled.

“Can’t,” she insisted, lowering her voice and explaining, “There are monsters. Misaki, _please_.”

“Only monster in this place is you,” Misaki groaned.

“I’m scared, Misaki,” his sister pleaded.

Misaki sighed, shifting over and lifting the blanket up. “One of these days, you got to make it through the whole night on your own, deal?”

Megumi crawled in, tucking herself neatly under his chin. In another few seconds she was asleep, snoring in his ear. It felt like Misaki only just closed his eyes again when his alarm went off at 4:00 AM. He reached over to silence it, carefully maneuvering around the little girl tangled up in his blanket. She’d managed to take it entirely for herself, along with most of the bedroll, leaving Misaki cold and crammed against the wall on the hard tile floor.

With half-lidded eyes, Misaki climbed to his feet and headed out of their one-bedroom. On his way, he had to step over a lump of blanket on the floor that was barely recognizable as Minoru. He paused at the altar where a picture of his mother and step-father was set up.

“Morning,” he greeted them, lighting a small piece of incense and bowing to them, before moving on to the kitchen.

He started a pot of rice and put a pan over the stove to begin heating then broke off some eggs into a bowl, whisking them for tamagoyaki. In the fridge was leftover pork from the night before and some steamed vegetables. He pulled out three bento boxes from the cupboard and started portioning out the pork and stamping out shapes from the steamed vegetables, arranging them neatly in the boxes. The omelets didn’t take him long to make, and he boxed those as well, before moving on to breakfast. It was time to wake the little ones when he put bread in the skillet to toast. He trekked into the bedroom again.

“Minoru, Megumi, time to get up,” he said, leaning over to shake his brother’s shoulder.

Minoru groaned, “Five more minutes.”

“_Not_ five more minutes, get ready for school,” Misaki replied, nudging his brother with his toe and stumbling to his own bedroll where his little sister had bundled herself like a sushi roll in his blanket. He brushed Megumi’s hair from her face, “Rise and shine, monster.”

Megumi’s eyes shot open and she smiled at Misaki, “I want pancakes for breakfast.”

“How about sardines and toast,” Misaki said, moving to the dresser to pick out her clothes.

“Pancakes shaped like dinosaurs,” Megumi replied.

“Toast shaped like…bread,” Misaki returned. He scowled at Minoru, still tucked in his blankets on the ground. “Seriously, Minoru, get out of bed.”

“Nnnh,” Minoru replied.

Megumi rolled up into a sitting position and jumped onto the lump that was her second older brother.

“Get off, brat,” Minoru roared, “Misaki!”

“Megumi, get over here, you monster,” Misaki said, covering a laugh. Megumi bounced on Minoru a couple times, much to Minoru’s screamed protests, before rushing over to crash into Misaki’s legs. She was less cooperative about changing, squirming and moving her limbs in awkward angles as Misaki attempted tugging her shirt and skirt on. Minoru sat up in his bedroll and glared at Misaki.

“I’m feeling sick,” he declared.

“You’re not sick,” Misaki replied.

“I’ve definitely got a fever. Come feel my head,” Minoru said.

“Fever’ll be the least of your worries if you don’t get out of bed,” Misaki told him.

“I smell burning,” Megumi announced.

“Dammit,” Misaki hurried from the room to pull his toast off the stove, “Burnt one is yours, Minoru!”

“What? Why?”

“Get out of bed and get dressed in the next two minutes and I might reconsider,” Misaki said, flipping the extra crisp bread out of the pan onto a plate.

It took Minoru a bit longer than two minutes to get ready, but Misaki took the burnt toast for himself anyway. He placed two plates of breakfast on the table for Megumi and Minoru to start eating, nibbling on the black toast as he cleaned the dishes he’d used. He wrapped up their lunches and was packing their bookbags while they finished eating when there came a knock at the front door.

Misaki furrowed his brow, it was never good news this early in the morning. He opened the door a crack, peeking out. A sour faced older man stood there with his nose wrinkled as though he smelled something he disliked. One might be inclined to believe it was the burnt toast if not for the fact his face always looked like that when he spoke to Misaki. He tried to peek around Misaki once the door opened, but Misaki placed his body in the way.

“Morning, Mister Subaru. What’s up?” Misaki greeted, forcing a bright grin. He tried to stay on good terms with his neighbors, that way they were usually more understanding when Megumi threw a temper tantrum or Minoru caused mischief like drawing crude figures in the stairwell. Mister Subaru was prickly, though. He never quite bought the story Misaki told when they first moved in, about their father being away on business a lot.

“Yata,” the old man replied tersely, “Landlady was looking for you yesterday. She says you still owe her money for last month’s rent.”

“Ah…right,” Misaki’s smile wavered only slightly, as he shuffled money around in his head. He’d used payment from his two part-time jobs the day before to cover utility bills, his part-time job that morning wouldn’t cover the remaining balance on rent and he still had to pick up Minoru’s medicine. He could stop by the grocer, since the owner still owed him money for a few shifts he’d worked there, but he’d been waved away the last three times he tried to collect. The only other option was the noodle restaurant on the street corner, owner might give him a shift because he liked Misaki, and maybe the tips would help combined with the morning job. He’d just have to make sure the owner let him out before it was time to pick up the little ones from school.

“She wasn’t very happy when she couldn’t find you. Do you have the rent or not?” Mister Subaru said, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Y-yes, I have it,” Misaki hurriedly answered, flustering, “Of course I have it.”

“She says if you don’t get it to her by the end of the day, you need to find a new place to squat,” Mister Subaru continued. His lips cracked into a facsimile of a smile. “I told her I’d pass the message on.”

Misaki winced, “Why so impatient? I told her I’d get it to her!”

“Before this month’s rent is due?”

“Of course…”

“Because this month’s rent is due at the end of the week. Do you have this month’s rent?” Mister Subaru folded his arms over his chest and raised a skeptical brow. Misaki shifted from one foot to the other. “Maybe your father should stop by and have a word with her. If he’s in town. That is.”

“R-right. I-I’ll talk to him,” Misaki stammered. He heard a crash inside the apartment, a rush of feet, slam of door, and Megumi began to wail, “Dammit! I gotta go. Have a good day, Mister Subaru.”

He all but slammed the door in the old man’s face, clicking the lock into place and hurrying back to the kitchen. He found a shattered plate on the floor, food splattered everywhere, his skateboard upturned against the cabinet, and Megumi in the center of it all, ketchup and egg spittle staining the front of her outfit, face twisted in desperation. She clenched and unclenched her tiny hands at her side, as she screamed for her big brother.

“MI…SAAA….KIIIII!” Her cheeks were red and she gasped for breath between syllables.

Minoru was conspicuously absent from the scene.

“It’s okay, it’s okay! I’m here, I’m right here. We don’t need to yell,” Misaki soothed, kneeling down to inspect her for injuries before sweeping her out of the mess with his hands under her arms and sitting her on the counter next to the sink. He rubbed a hand on her back and made soothing noises until her sobs subsided to a whimper. She opened her eyes and pouted at him.

“My favorite skirt is bad, now, I have to throw it away,” she decided.

“What? Throw it away? Why?” Misaki gaffed, grabbing a wet cloth and wiping the food off her hands and shirt front, “It’ll be fine. I just have to clean it.”

“It’s bad. It has to go away,” she insisted.

“Fine, whatever. I’ll throw it away,” Misaki lied, “But later, okay. For now, let’s get you into something with less egg on it and then we can kill your brother.”

“Okay,” Megumi agreed with an eager smile.

“Okay,” Misaki grinned, touching their foreheads together. He picked her up again and carried her at arm’s length from the kitchen back into the bedroom. He noted their bathroom door was closed in passing. “So that’s where he’s hiding. Brat.”

Changing Megumi took a few minutes, she didn’t have many clean outfits left. He’d have to find time and change for a laundry mat run that week. He glanced at the clock with a frown. He had no chance of getting to work on time that day. He sighed, and pounded his fist on the bathroom door.

“I didn’t do it,” Minoru cried from inside.

“Open the door, kid, and take your beating like a man,” Misaki replied.

“I didn’t do it,” Minoru repeated with more ferocity.

“You can tell that to the judge. Which is me. I’m also jury and executioner,” Misaki felt around the top ledge of the bathroom door frame for his emergency lockpick – a bit of twisted paperclip. He knelt in front of the door and wiggled the wire in the lock.

“I’m telling you; it wasn’t me,” Minoru said. Misaki pushed the door open and stood to glare down at his brother. Minoru was seated in the empty bathtub, his legs drawn up to his chest. He looked up at Misaki with a little frown. “It’s no fair. Megumi never gets in trouble for anything.”

“Megumi doesn’t mess around on my skateboard and break shit,” Misaki replied.

“You said a bad word,” Minoru muttered, burying his head in his knees.

“Yeah, yeah,” Misaki put his hands in his pockets and sighed, “We’re running late. We can talk about it on the way to school.”

“If we’re late, can’t we just not go?” Minoru complained.

“You know that’s not how it works,” Misaki rolled his eyes, “If you get out of the tub, I’ll let you ride my board to school.”

Minoru’s eyes lit up, “Really? Will you show me how to do a trick, too?”

“No time,” Misaki grabbed him by the elbow and tugged him upwards. Minoru pouted again and Misaki said, “If you clean up the mess you made when we get home and get all your homework done before seven, I’ll show you a trick. One trick before bedtime. Deal?”

“Deal,” Minoru hopped out of the tub.

They were ten minutes late getting out the door. Misaki snuck them around the long way to avoid Mister Subaru. He glanced into the window of the front office for any signs of their landlady before hurrying out of the complex with Megumi in his arms, yanking Minoru by the hand. Minoru’s backpack bounced noisily as he hobbled along, doing his best to keep from dragging Misaki’s skateboard on the ground. Once they were safely away from the apartments, Misaki put the board on the ground and held it steady while Minoru stepped onto it. Misaki repositioned the little boy’s feet for him for the right balance, before taking his hand and tugging him along the street, Megumi clung around Misaki’s neck like a monkey.

“Can I get a skateboard?” Minoru asked.

“No.”

“Can I have yours?”

“_No_.”

Megumi buried her face in her oldest brother’s shoulder and heaved a heavy sigh.

“Why not?” Minoru demanded.

“Because I use it everyday to go to my jobs. It’s not a toy, Minoru, I need it,” Misaki explained, “Why do you want a skateboard all of a sudden?”

“It’s not all of a sudden. I always wanted one. You just would’ve said no, so I never asked,” Minoru said. His voice was on the border of a whine. Misaki patted Megumi’s back, feeling her growing limp in his arms, reminding him of the little sleep he got the night before.

“And now you think my answer is going to be different?” Misaki challenged.

“I never ask for anything,” Minoru began.

“You ask for, like, ten things every day,” Misaki muttered.

“That’s different. This is important.”

“My foot it’s important.”

“I’m turning ten in two weeks. That’s a big birthday, right?” Minoru persisted. Misaki winced. It wasn’t that he’d forgotten his little brother’s birthday. More like he’d forgotten what month they were in. “I’m practically an adult. I should get an adult gift. Like a skateboard.”

“Listen, Minoru, I don’t know if…” Misaki searched for the right way to explain that a gift of any kind probably wasn’t in the cards for Minoru’s birthday, let alone one as expensive as a skateboard.

“Besides, if I had a skateboard, the other kids at school would think it was cool and…and…” Minoru trailed off.

Misaki could take an unkind guess what the end of that sentence sounded like. He flashed briefly on an old memory of his own school days. He knew it had been hard for Minoru switching schools when they lost the house, like it had been hard for Misaki when his mother’s new husband moved them for his job.

“I’ll see what I can do, okay, but no promises,” Misaki said.

“Seriously? That would be so awesome,” Minoru exclaimed.

“No promises,” Misaki stressed.

“I swear, if you get me this one thing, I’ll be the best. I’ll take my bath on time, and do all my homework every night, and I’ll clean the bathroom for a month! Please, Misaki, please, please, please,” Minoru pleaded.

“We’re at school. For now, you mind just walking Megumi the rest of the way to her class? I have to get to work,” Misaki said.

“Yeah, I can do that. Count on me!”

Misaki put Megumi on the ground and stirred her awake. She looked at him groggily. He put her backpack on and placed a kiss atop her head.

“Blame me when the teacher asks why you were late, and be good, both of you,” he eyed Minoru pointedly, “I’ll see you when the day’s over.”

“Bye, Misaki,” Megumi murmured, wrapping her arms around his legs.

“Later,” Minoru attempted to kick the board up into his hand, but it barely made it halfway up and slid out from under him as he stumbled backwards.

Misaki caught the board with his own foot and easily kicked it into his hand, while managing to reach out the other hand and grab Minoru by his collar, steadying the smaller boy on his feet once more. He pressed Megumi’s hand into Minoru’s and watched them head into the school building before dropping the board back to the ground and hopping on it. He raced down the sidewalk at a breakneck pace for his morning job.

That morning, Misaki had promised to work a few hours at the nursing home emptying bed pans and mopping the floors. He was exactly fifteen minutes late when he tried to sneak through the side-entry door. A hand with long, claw-like nails, caught hold of him by the shirt collar.

“Yata-chan,” the middle-aged woman cooed, “You’re late.”

“I know. I know. I’m sorry. I’ll put it in extra work, I promise,” Misaki said, flustering and avoiding eye contact with the woman. There was something about women that made him nervous, the way their bodies curved and their voices were so soft. This particular woman favored form-fitted dresses with low necklines and flashy make-up. Her perfume made him dizzy.

“You’ll put in no work. I’m over your promises and your excuses,” she replied coolly, “This is the third time in two weeks that you said you would be here at a certain time and weren’t. I can’t rely on you.”

Misaki felt a chill creeping through him, his stomach turning with sickness, “You can. Please, I’m sorry. I tried to be here on time, but things kept coming up…I’ll put in an extra hour. Please, don’t do this.”

“No, no, honey, save the tears. You think you’re the first man to let me down? I took a chance on you, because you’ve got that cute, little face, but this work is easy pay, and I’ve got plenty of people waiting to snatch it up. It took me five minutes to fill your shoes,” the woman said.

“That’s not…it’s just…I didn’t mean…” Misaki bit his lower lip and curled his hands into tight fists, letting the disappointment sear through him. He slumped his shoulders and whispered in defeat, “You’ve already found someone else?”

“Yes and she’s already doing great work, her manner and dress are far more pleasant, she doesn’t scare the patients, and she doesn’t have requests for odd hours either. She says she can be here the whole day, and on call, if I need her,” the woman told him, folding her arms over her chest and making a tsking noise with her tongue, “I wish it could’ve turned out better for you but this was never a priority to you. I need someone I can count on to be here. Someone that shows me they actually want this job.”

“I…I…um…okay. I’m sorry. I…okay…thank you,” Misaki bowed quickly, as he stepped back towards the exit, “Maybe…um…maybe you’ll consider me…maybe in the future…”

“Maybe,” the woman said, but she didn’t sound convinced.

Misaki nodded and, without another word, left. He managed to hold it in until he found an ally to duck into and collapse behind the dumpster, burying his head in his knees to muffle his frustrated scream.

“How the fuck am I going to make rent now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashing forward four years...Minoru is Misaki's payback for being a brat, and Megumi has a teeny bit of a big brother complex.


	4. Chapter 4

Misaki made his way up the familiar footpath and stood on the porch practicing smiling for a few minutes before he knocked. The old woman that answered gave him a once over.

“What happened?”

“No…nothing happened…I…I just…” Misaki blew his breath out at once and hung his head in shame, “How do you always know?”

Miss Tegui opened the door wider to let him in. He removed his shoes and propped his skateboard at the door. The past four years had stolen a couple inches, given her a few more wrinkles, and turned her head completely white. She walked with a heavier limp that morning.

“Don’t tell me. It’s about to rain,” Misaki muttered under his breath, following her into the living area. He plopped on the floor.

“You think you’re a good liar, but the truth is, you suck at it,” she told him plainly, shuffling into the kitchen to put a kettle to boil for tea. “Your mother told me that, when you were a small boy, whenever you tried to lie to her, she’d know, because you’d be bawling your eyes out.”

“Whatever. Who wants to be a good liar anyway,” Misaki folded his legs and slumped back on the floor. “It’s not a big deal. I lost a job this morning is all.”

Miss Tegui stepped back into the living area to look down at him in shock.

“Not a big deal?” she repeated, “Yata, tell me the truth, how bad is it. You know I can always make room for you and the little ones if…”

“It’s not that bad,” Misaki insisted. He frowned at her. “Besides, where would you make space? Your house isn’t much bigger than our apartment. And for how long? What happens when your grandchildren come to stay? Seriously, Miss Tegui, stop. Don’t ask again. I didn’t come here for sympathy or hand-outs.”

“Fine. What did you come here for, then?” Miss Tegui demanded.

“Company. Tea. Something to keep me busy,” Misaki answered, giving her a pleading look. She sighed and folded her hands in front of her.

“You really should save your energy for the little ones and looking for paying work.”

“I already tried looking, all my usual connections don’t need help right now, and I can handle the little ones with or without energy,” Misaki said. She huffed another sigh.

“The garden could use some tending…and the back gate, its latch is stuck and I don’t have the strength to pry it open, if you think you could manage…”

“Right. Leave it to me,” Misaki grinned, hopping to his feet.

Fixing the latch wasn’t difficult, but the garden took over an hour. By then, Miss Tegui had set up a pot of tea with snacks. She’d come up with a couple more things she needed worked on, as well. It wasn’t that Misaki had a particular love of chores, or handiwork. He’d found over the years that keeping busy, staying active, was therapeutic for him. It didn’t give him a chance to dwell on things, and the less he sat and thought, the better.

Miss Tegui sipped her tea in silence. Misaki nibbled at his serving of milk bread and hoped she’d give him the next To-Do’s soon. He could already feel a restless itching under his skin to get back to work. It didn’t help being so close to the old house. He could sense it, a few doors away. He hadn’t been back there since moving the little ones out. He preferred it that way. He didn’t have to remember the life he’d had there before the accident. Didn’t have to think about those horrible days and months after. The struggle of learning how to care for a baby and toddler on his own, of looking for work as a middle school drop-out with no experience, the dull pain of selling away all their furniture and as much of their belongings as they could part with to cover bills. Like selling away pieces of himself, until there was nothing left but the clothes on their back, the pictures of their parents, and a kotatsu. His mother and step-father had some savings, but most of it went to cover cost of funerals.

Funerals, Misaki squeezed his eyes shut, attempting to shut out the thoughts from his mind. He vaguely recalled that day, standing in the grave yard. Megumi in his arms. Minoru attached to his hip. People stopped to give their condolences to the pitiful orphans and were never seen or heard from again. Only Miss Tegui had stuck around to help in what little ways she could. She didn’t have much money and her home was small. Not that Misaki would ask or want anything if she could offer it. He’d made the decision to keep the family together and support the children, and it was his responsibility. He couldn’t put any of that burden on to anyone else, no matter how willing.

“Was there anything else you wanted me to work on?” Misaki said, putting the rest of his milk bread down.

“You don’t have time, do you? You’re working lunch shift at the restaurant, right? Finish your tea and snacks. You should leave soon if you want to make it on time,” Miss Tegui replied. She put her cup of tea down and stood. “I’ll pack some things for the little ones to eat. I picked up some fresh dumplings earlier today. I have a friend coming to visit for lunch, but my eyes were too big, I picked out far more than we can eat on our own.”

“Really, Miss Tegui, I couldn’t,” Misaki insisted. The old woman waved him away.

“If you can’t accept them, just don’t eat them. Give them all to the little ones. You can take a gift for them, can’t you?”

“Oh, yeah, right. Thanks Miss Tegui.”

Misaki slumped over the table. His mind was back on money problems. Minoru’s birthday in two weeks, and he promised to try getting the boy something special. He wondered how many part-time jobs he’d have to work to be able to afford a new skateboard. He knew it didn’t feel fair to the younger boy, but Misaki’s skateboard had been a Christmas gift from their mother the last Christmas they were a whole family. He didn’t hold on to it for sentimental reasons though, it was his only means of transportation. 

Misaki finished his tea, and took the package of snacks Miss Tegui wrapped for the children. She followed him to the door and waited as he exchanged house slippers for his sneakers.

“The weather is going to start getting colder soon. Do you have warm jackets for the little ones,” Miss Tegui asked.

“Of course,” Misaki grabbed his skateboard.

“Do you have warm clothes for yourself?” she eyed him knowingly.

“I’ll be fine. You worry too much. I’ll paint that back wall next time I come by. It’s getting worn. Thanks for the tea,” he told her. He left before she could ask any more prying questions, feeling as though a weight was lifting from his shoulders the farther he moved away from that neighborhood.

…

Misaki was pretty good at waiting tables. He was quick and could manage multiple tasks at once easily. His memory seemed to work best when it came to food and he never forgot an order. If he did make mistakes, customers were often more forgiving of him, because they thought he was younger than his actual age. He made a bit better tips than the other wait staff, because customers found his small stature and energetic personality cute. While he didn’t typically like being thought of as cute, he didn’t mind it as much when money was involved.

“If you stayed for dinner service, you could make three times that much,” one of the full-time waiters, Riho, said, nodding at Misaki’s bundle of tips.

“Is the money really that much better?” he wondered, slipping his apron off and hanging it in the back kitchen. The cooks were prepping food for dinner. Misaki had a few minutes before he needed to leave for his siblings.

“More people. More alcohol too. Drunk tips better than sober. Not to mention, you’re so small and you’ve got an appealing face. Men and women both like you, also you bring in all the shotacons, we always have more customers when you’re here. You’d make a lot of money, for sure,” the waiter continued.

Misaki frowned, turning the thought over in his mind, and pushing down the frustration at being called small and cute again. If he could make that much money in one night, he’d definitely have enough to cover the rent and part of next month’s rent too. That would get the landlady off his back. Then maybe he could use some money from his part-time job in the morning to get Minoru a gift. He still wouldn’t be able to afford the skateboard, but maybe there was something cheaper that the kids in school would be impressed by.

“What am I thinking,” Misaki mumbled to himself.

There was no way he could work a dinner shift. There was no way he could leave Minoru and Megumi alone for that long.

Could he?

Minoru was excited that morning about turning ten and becoming an “adult”. Maybe ten was old enough to watch Megumi for a couple hours. Misaki tried to remember how old he was when his mother started leaving him alone. It was no use, he couldn’t recall. Maybe, if he made the little ones dinner early, got them their baths, and all Minoru had to do was make sure they brushed their teeth and went to bed on time.

Misaki found the owner in the backroom.

“Would it be okay if I came back for dinner shift?”

“Dinner shift, huh?” the owner wrinkled his brow, “You’ve never been available for dinner shift before.”

“Just tonight. I think I could,” Misaki said, pushing a smile on his face and trying to look like a responsible person. It was hard to do with holes in his shirt and a cowlick on the side of his head that he couldn’t tame that morning no matter how much he wet it down.

“It would be a lot of help. Can you be back by five?”

“Five?” Misaki hesitated. It was going to be tight, but he was sure he could make it.

“Is that a problem?”

“Ah, no, no,” Misaki ran a hand over the back of his head, “Five is good. I’ll be back at five. Thank you so much!”

Getting Megumi from her class was quick and easy, but they ended up waiting nearly ten minutes for Minoru to show up. Misaki felt uncomfortable with the stares passing students gave him, and two teachers mistook him for a student, scolding him for being out of uniform, loitering around, and having his skateboard.

“I’m seventeen, dammit. I’m not even a student anywhere,” he snapped at the second teacher, “I’m just here picking up my siblings.”

“You said a bad word,” Megumi mumbled into Misaki’s shoulder unhelpfully.

“Wait off property, then, your manner is scaring the children,” the teacher huffed and disappeared into the crowd. Minoru chose that moment to appear.

“Where the hell have you been?” Misaki demanded, and then noticed that the boy was dragging his bookbag at his side, both of the straps were dangling at an odd angle, “And what the hell happened to your bag?”

“Nothing happened. Why are you always yelling?” Minoru replied. His cheek was red and he had a scrape on his chin.

“Ugh…you’ve been fighting again? You’re unbelievable!” Misaki took a deep breath, as the words _three times as much money_ echoed between his ears. “Never mind. Forget it. We don’t have time. Hurry up, we’re going home.”

Misaki grabbed his little brother by the neck and pushed him forward. They hurried along the sidewalk, Misaki ensuring they move at a brisk pace.

“Why are we in such a rush, anyways?” Minoru demanded, struggling to keep up as Misaki yanked at his arm.

“I-I-uh…I got a job tonight. I need to be there at five,” he explained.

“You’re going to work? But we had a deal, Misaki,” Minoru whined, dragging everyone to a halt.

“Deal?” Misaki wrinkled his brow.

“You forgot. You always forget,” Minoru cried, “You said you’d teach me a new skateboard trick. You promised.”

“Oh that…” Misaki winced, “I don’t remember promising anything…”

“You said you would do it if I clean the mess up and do my homework,” Minoru folded his arms over his chest and pouted up at Misaki.

“Yeah…well, you haven’t exactly held up your end of the bargain yet anyways,” Misaki replied.

“That means I don’t have to clean anything or do my homework,” Minoru said.

“Not what it means. You still have to clean your mess,” Misaki groaned, ducking his head sheepishly, he quickly added, “And watch your sister tonight, put her to bed, while I go to work.”

“That’s no fair, Misaki! You don’t have to keep your end of the deal, but I still have to keep mine and babysit Megumi too? That’s crap!”

“Hey, don’t use that kind of language!”

“You use bad words all the time!”

“Dammit, Minoru,” Misaki seethed, rubbing his forehead in frustration, “Listen, okay, I’ll show you later. Please, can we get moving. I’ve only got so much time. This is important.”

“Everything is always more important than me,” Minoru grumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets and allowing himself to be dragged by the shoulders towards home.

When they got into the apartment, Minoru beelined for the bedroom. Misaki put Megumi down to start dinner when he realized the mess still on the floor from the morning. Including the broken plate that Megumi was heading towards.

“Shit,” Misaki picked Megumi up again, “Minoru, get out here and clean this mess.”

“No! You clean it!” Minoru shouted back.

Misaki knew if he didn’t make sure it was cleaned before he left, Minoru was just stubborn enough to leave the mess the entire night. He couldn’t leave Megumi wandering the apartment with broken glass and he didn’t have time to argue with Minoru about it. He sighed, set Megumi on the counter.

“Want to play the guessing game, monster?” Misaki said to her in a false cheery voice.

“Yeah,” Megumi grinned. It was her favorite game and an easy way to keep her still and focused on him.

“You have to give me a clue when you’re ready,” Misaki told her. He rolled up his sleeves and retrieved the broom from the closet, carefully stepping around the broken glass.

“Pink,” Megumi said.

“That’s not a clue. That’s a color,” Misaki complained, pouting comically at her, “Can’t I have another.” She shook her head, slapping a hand to her mouth and smiling behind it. “Okay, okay. Are you thinking of…a flower?”

Megumi shook her head. She held her hand up and waggled her fingers, dropping her thumb to indicate that he had four more guess left. Misaki started sweeping up the glass and dried food bits, making a show of thinking about his next guess.

“How about…a piece of candy,” Misaki said. She giggled and shook her head, another finger went down. He scooped up the glass, and tossed it in the waste bin. He pulled out a rag from under the counter and got it wet. He wrinkled his nose as he thought about it. “Is it a fish?”

“Nope,” Megumi kicked her legs happily and wiggling her fingers, held in a V-shape, “You only got this many left, Misaki.”

Misaki knelt on the floor, scrubbing the dried on egg bits and ketchup, as he thought about his next answer. “Can I have another clue?”

“Mmm…” Megumi tapped her tiny finger to her chin. “Sparkles.”

“Pink…sparkles…” Misaki made a face, biting his tongue on how stupidly girly it all sounded. “What could you possibly be thinking of…”

“Can’t say,” Megumi smirked.

“Maybe…are you thinking about…shoes?” Misaki said weakly.

“One more,” Megumi announced. Misaki sighed, finishing up the floor. He stood and tossed the rag into the sink and ran water over it.

“I don’t know, Megumi. Is it pancakes?”

“Nope,” Megumi laughed giddily, “I was thinking about a princess riding in a carriage, like Cinderella, with four horses and she had ribbons in her hair.”

“Oh…that’s…” Misaki frowned, picking her up and setting her on the floor, “I never would’ve guessed that.”

“I know,” she said, matter-of-fact.

“Right, monster. You win. So what do you want for dinner?” Misaki knelt down to eye-level with her.

“Pancakes,” Megumi declared proudly.

Misaki rolled his eyes, “I guessed that one, at least.” He rummaged through the pantry for ingredients, mumbling to himself, “I don’t think we have milk…maybe I can use water…”

Dinner didn’t take too long to make. Misaki glanced at the clock as he dripped batter into the skillet. He just needed to get the kids into the bath and then he could take off. He set a plate of the pancakes on the table and Megumi eagerly snatched one up.

“Minoru, dinner,” Misaki called. It was a few minutes later that the little boy shuffled out of the room. He didn’t look at Misaki when he sat down and frowned at the table.

“Pancakes,” Minoru scowled, “How is this dinner?”

“After dinner, take a bath with Megumi,” Misaki instructed, ignoring his little brother’s complaints.

“Why do I have to? I’m a man, I should be able to take a bath alone,” Minoru said, “Why don’t you take a bath with Megumi?”

“Man or not, no one in this house gets to take a bath alone. We can’t afford the water or the heat,” Misaki retorted, darting a nervous look at the clock. He really didn’t understand why he had to explain all of this to Minoru. Most nights they all shared a bath, “We’re not having this argument anymore. I’ll be leaving before you get out of the bath. Do your homework and go to bed on time. If anything happens, I’m just at the restaurant on the corner.”

Minoru grumbled more under his breath but didn’t say anymore. When he finished eating, he grabbed Megumi’s hand and took her to take their bath. Misaki cleared the table and washed the dishes. He called to the children that he was leaving, and stepped out into the night. It was already starting to get chilly out. He’d lied to Miss Tegui about having cold weather clothes for himself. He’d given Minoru his old sweaters, when Minoru had outgrown his own, and was never able to replace them. He wasn’t sure what he would do when the temperatures really began to drop.

“I just need to focus on getting rent paid this month,” he reminded himself. A hopeful part of him realized that if things worked out like this, maybe he could start leaving Minoru and Megumi more and pick up some late shifts.


	5. Chapter 5

Riho hadn’t been lying about dinner tips. After only an hour and a half, Misaki had more than doubled his tips from the lunch shift. He waved to a couple that he’d finished serving, thanking them for their patronage, and eagerly swept up the money they left him into his apron. He went to the bar counter for a short breather, counting the yen in his pocket as relief spread through his chest. Even if he left now, he’d have the money to cover his balance for last month’s rent. That meant everything he made from here on out could go towards next month’s rent. He thought, excitedly, that if things kept going like they were, he’d have next month’s rent in no time.

A hand touched Misaki’s backside and he nearly jumped out of his skin as an older man in tan colored suit leaned against the counter next to him. The guy was in his mid-thirties, maybe, and attractive with dark colored hair and light eyes.

“You’re new,” the man said, hand holding Misaki in place. He smelled of tobacco and peppermint, “I haven’t seen you before.”

Misaki flustered. He tried to keep his voice even as he replied, “Yeah…uh…sort of. I work part-time in the day, a lot. This is my first night working dinner.”

“What a shame. I come here every week for dinner. Service is good, but it would be better to come from someone with your cute face,” the man continued.

Misaki curled his hand into a fist at his side, bit back the rude remark bubbling its way up inside of him. This was the third time that day he’d been reminded of his short stature and less than masculine features. The guy was weird, and Misaki didn’t understand the handsy behavior, but he had to focus, there were still three and a half more hours in dinner shift. It would be a lot of money he’d be throwing away, not to mention future part time work at the noodle shop, if he lost his temper now. He squirmed against the older man’s hold.

“I should get back to work,” he forced a smile, “Need to continue the good service here for everyone.”

“But you haven’t taken my order,” the man said, slipping his hand to Misaki’s hip, arm firm around his waist. Misaki stumbled back from the grip in shock, nearly tumbling over, but the man’s reflexes were excellent. He caught hold of Misaki and drew the smaller framed boy to his chest. “Clumsy, aren’t you?”

“I-i-it’s not my section,” Misaki stammered, heat flooding his cheeks as he slowly processed their positioning and the number of eyes on the two of them.

“I wonder if you could be this clumsy and cute in a Lolita dress…lace and red ribbons would look amazing with these eyes of yours,” the man mused, his face close enough that Misaki could smell the alcohol warm on his breath. That was the final straw.

“I’m a guy, why the hell would I wear something like that?” Misaki demanded. His next words caught in his throat and all of his blood rushed straight to his head when the older man’s hand slipped down to caress Misaki’s butt cheek.

Before Misaki could stop himself, the older man was nearly collapsed to his knees, gripping the bar for support with one hand, his other hand cradling the blossoming bruise on his lower jaw where Misaki’s fist had connected. Several of the customers were making gasping noises and whispering about the commotion. Misaki was ready to move in for the kill, but a couple of the waiters stepped between them. He was dragged into the back where the owner was waiting.

“I gave you a chance tonight and this is how you repay me?” the owner hissed, jabbing a finger at Misaki’s chest, “You can’t attack customers like that!”

“It’s not my fault! That creep was saying weird things and putting his hands…his hands were…he was touching…” Misaki’s hands curled into tight fists, heart pounding erratically in his chest. Things were just starting to go well and now he was about to lose another job that day.

“I don’t care. Even if he took you out back and bent you over, you would do it with a smile and thank him for coming,” the owner said.

“Wait…what? No way would I ever…” Misaki shook with his anger. How could the owner even suggest he do such a thing?

“Shut up! Do you have any idea who that man even is?”

Misaki faltered, looking between the owner and the two waiters that had dragged him into the back. He finally registered the fear in their eyes.

“I…” he rubbed his arm and wrinkled his brow.

“He’s the eldest son of a Yakuza boss,” the owner explained, running a hand over the back of his neck. “You need to go out there and apologize.”

“…but his hands were…” Misaki bit his lower lip, tears of frustration forming in his eyes. “I didn’t know.”

“Go to him and apologize. Beg for his forgiveness and if he asks for anything in repayment, anything at all, do it,” the owner instructed.

Misaki scowled, a bitter taste in his mouth at the thought of having to grovel to that bastard. But the Yakuza might retaliate against the noodle shop for his actions, and after all that the owner had done for him - always giving him shifts when he asked, sometimes letting him take extra ingredients home – he couldn’t let someone else take responsibility. The owner was counting on him to make this right. Besides, if he could fix this, the owner might not fire him.

Misaki nodded and whispered, “Okay.”

The older man was brooding in a private room with a few other well-dressed men of the same age, scantily clad women climbing all over them. Misaki flustered at the sight of the ladies, dropping his eyes to the floor, his cheeks bright red.

“We don’t need anything else at the moment,” one of the other men said.

“I’m not here for that,” Misaki fidgeted with the cloth of his apron.

“Oh, it’s you,” the Yakuza’s son sounded mildly interested.

“Huh? What…is this the guy that punched you, Tatsuo? He’s so tiny. Looks like he could be twelve. Are you even old enough to work here?” another of the men laughed.

The Yakuza’s son, Tatsuo, snatched up a sake glass from the table and shattered it against the man’s forehead. Misaki flinched, all the hair on his body standing on end, his senses screaming at him to run. The others in the room froze and the attacked man wobbled, placing both hands on the table to steady himself.

“Everyone out,” Tatsuo roared, pointing his finger at Misaki, “Except you.”

The people hurried from the room as Misaki stood paralyzed in his spot. They closed the door behind them, effectively shutting him in with the older man. Tatsuo leaned back in his seat, propping his elbows back on the top of the booth seat. He surveyed Misaki with appraising eyes, and Misaki almost felt naked under the seething gaze.

“I’m disappointed. Maybe you’re not so cute as I thought, after all,” Tatsuo said lazily. “They told you who my father is?”

Misaki nodded slowly. He took a subconscious step back. Tatsuo barked out a laugh. He leaned forward and ran a finger along his own jawline where the skin was beginning to discolor from the impact of Misaki’s fist.

“And now you’re here to ask for my forgiveness, right?”

Swallowing down his emotions and pride, Misaki lowered his head, bent at the waist and squeezed his eyes shut, “I acted without thinking. It was my mistake, no one else’s. I’ll take responsibility for it. Please accept my apology.”

“Will you now? Your actions have injured my pride. Pride is everything to a man,” Tatsuo drummed his fingers, watching Misaki from the corner of his gaze.

Pride. The world had taken everything from Misaki but he’d thought he at least had that much left. Now he stood groveling before a man that had groped him, and wondered.

“I…I know. Please, whatever I can do to make it up to you,” Misaki stammered, the words sticking in his throat. A twisted smile curled on Tatsuo’s face. By now, anything that had seemed attractive about his features had been perverted into something monstrous.

“Whatever, huh? I wonder, how much are you willing to _do_ for my forgiveness?” Tatsuo said, tongue trailing across his upper lip.

“I’ll do anything,” Misaki stiffly replied. His heart was pounding in his ears again, his stomach curling into knots.

“Anything? Do you know how dangerous an offer that is? I could ask to chop off a body part, or allow me to torture you for hours,” Tatsuo continued to grin at Misaki like the cat that caught the mouse. All of the color drained from Misaki’s features. He backed up again, hitting the door with his shoulders. Tatsuo covered a laugh, his hand coming down to trace a thumb along the brim of his trousers, fingers folding suggestively around the bulge in his pants, “What if I asked you to get on your knees and suck me off?”

Misaki’s eyes had followed the motions of that man’s hand but at Tatsuo’s suggestive words, he flicked his gaze away and swallowed hard. Tatsuo’s eyes were drinking in Misaki’s every reaction.

“Is my forgiveness important enough to you, that you would do such a thing? How far would you go from there? If I told you to take off your clothes and touch yourself as I watch. Would you do that?” Tatsuo stood and crossed the room, pulling Misaki’s face up by the chin and trailing his thumb over Misaki’s bottom lip, “Would you climb on my dick and let me rape you?”

Misaki stared at him, horrified. Tatsuo laughed again.

“You could’ve left here when you learned who I was, run away and not come back. I don’t know your name, I’d never find you. I don’t have that kind of time to waste searching for an impudent brat. And this is just a part-time job, nothing to you. What are you? A middle schooler? What difference would it make if you lost this job? So, you’re out some spending cash until you find another one,” Tatsuo taunted, “But instead you came in here ready to endure what I asked for my forgiveness? Why is that?”

“Is it any of your business?” Misaki replied.

Tatsuo grabbed Misaki by the throat, pulling him up and forward so their noses were nearly touching. Instinctively, Misaki brought an arm up to press against Tatsuo, attempting to maintain some distance between them. His other hand was clawing at the fingers wrapped around his neck in an attempt to loosen their hold.

“Yes. Because until I forgive you, you belong to me,” Tatsuo said.

Misaki struggled against the older man a moment. His closed his eyes and took a few calming breaths.

“It’s not nothing,” tears streamed down Misaki’s cheeks now, “It’s not spending cash. I need it. I need the money.”

Tatsuo roared out another laugh, tossing Misaki further in the room by his neck. Misaki caught himself against the bench, grimacing as Tatsuo came up behind him, pulling his head up by the hair and locking his arm behind his back. Tatsuo used the full weight of his body to hold Misaki firm in place, legs straddling him on either side, grinding the hard bulge in his groin against Misaki’s buttocks.

“So you’re the kind of person that would do anything for money?”

“N-no, no,” Misaki stammered, a couple frustrated tears tumbling off his chin to the tops of his hands where they gripped the booth for support.

“That’s a good expression on you. Maybe you are cute after all,” Tatsuo teased.

Misaki gasped, eyes widening, at a sudden warm dampness across the back of his neck, the rough texture of Tatsuo’s tongue sending a strange mix of emotions shivering down his spine. He pushed back the urge to fight, recalling the feeling of losing his part-time job that morning, the fear of not knowing how he’d pay rent. He tried to focus on his brother and sister. If he could get through this moment without making a bigger mess of things, he could pay rent that month and get Minoru a nice birthday gift. Even if it meant…the color flooded Misaki’s cheeks again.

Could he really do _that_ though?

_Pride is everything to a man_.

If Misaki allowed that to happen to himself, could he even continue thinking of himself as a man?

Tatsuo released Misaki and, without the pressure holding him up, Misaki slipped to his knees on the ground. His limbs felt strangely weak.

“Lucky for you, I’m not the type that pays for sex. I much prefer a partner that’s honestly begging me to cum inside them. As incredible a sight that you are, on your knees, blushing and panting like that with those tears in your eyes…really does turn me on,” Tatsuo said. He pulled his PDA from his breast pocket and knelt to eye-level with Misaki, holding it out for Misaki to see its screen, filled with the image of a white Lolita-style dress with red ribbons, lace, frills, puffy sleeves and a heart shaped cut out in the center of the breast. “It suits you, doesn’t it?”

“What?” Misaki murmured, trying to get a grip on the change in Tatsuo’s demeanor. The creep was back on the subject of clothes. Misaki was getting dizzy trying to keep up with him.

Tatsuo swiped to another picture of a sailor style schoolgirl uniform. He held it up beside Misaki, as though considering the combination, clicked his tongue and scrolled through a couple more images, and holding up another for Misaki to see. This picture was of a kimono with gold and pink patterns in the silk.

“This one too. On you, it would come up to here,” Tatsuo’s finger trailed up Misaki’s thigh, stopping halfway, “I think. Would have to see you in it to be sure. If that’s the case, we can get it tailored, pull up the hemline more.”

Misaki pushed his hand away. “What are you going on about? I’m not wearing any of that crap.”

“Five Hundred Thousand.”

“Five hundred thousand…what? I don’t understand? What are you saying?” Misaki’s brow pulled together in confusion. He wanted to leave that room and get back to work. If Tatsuo was going to “forgive” Misaki, he needed to get on with it. Misaki was missing out on tips dealing with this guy. He wondered how much time he still had left on the shift.

“Two-hour photo shoot. I pick the outfits and the poses. You get Five Hundred Thousand Yen,” Tatsuo explained, standing up and tucking his PDA back in his jacket. He put his hands in his pockets and smiled down at Misaki.

Misaki stared up at him with wide eyes, mouth agape. It was a lot of money for two hours. But what would the real cost be?

“Is this what I have to do for your ’forgiveness’?” Misaki asked bitterly.

Tatsuo was silent a moment, looking thoughtfully at Misaki.

“Everyone is always afraid when they learn who my father is, scared to slight me in any way out of fear of what he’ll do to them. But my father hasn’t gained his success by going on a killing spree every time some bitch slaps his son,” Tatsuo said in a bemused tone.

Misaki groaned, “So you’re saying it wasn’t even necessary for me to come in here?”

“That’s for you to decide. I’m talking business now,” Tatsuo smirked, “The photo shoot. Be one of my models. My gallery is highly exclusive, and I sell only to a handful of private collectors. Five hundred thousand yen is a lot of money, right? I bet you don’t even make that much in a week.”

Misaki moved his head back and forth once. He carefully picked himself off the ground but stayed against the booth. His body tense and ready to run for the exit.

“And that’s only for a first photo shoot. If your pictures are popular, I pay more for a second, then third, and fourth, as many as you want so long as the pictures sell well,” Tatsuo tipped his head to one side, “If you’re willing to go farther, pose with other models doing explicit things, I could arrange it and the pay is even better.”

He was leering at Misaki again, in a way that made Misaki feel warm and sick throughout.

“I have a feeling you’d be popular,” Tatsuo stepped forward, tracing his finger along the side of Misaki’s cheek, “Especially if you let other models _do_ _things _to you. Put _things_ inside you. Inside this rude mouth of yours. Inside that sweet little ass, you’ve got. You’d be a best seller. The expressions you make, everything about you perfectly cute, in the right clothes and make-up. I’m good at judging which models will be most successful. You’d be number one in no time.”

Misaki pulled back, attempting to compose himself. He didn’t want to think about what kinds of ‘things’ this guy wanted to put inside him, and he certainly didn’t want to dwell on why his ass was a prospective place to put said ‘things’. He would definitely be fired if he attacked this guy again.

“If I don’t need to apologize anymore, I’m done here. I’m going back to work,” Misaki declared. He started for the door, and Tatsuo grabbed hold of his wrist. Misaki turned around, protesting, “Let go. You said…”

Tatsuo held out a slip of paper between two fingers, he set it on Misaki’s bottom lip, “My business card. Call me when you’ve had the chance to fully consider my offer.”

Misaki scowled, grabbed the card and shoved it in his apron. He stormed from the room into the back office again where the owner waited.

“It’s done. He said his dad’s not going to do anything. Can I go back to work?”

“Really? That’s good. Good. Hm? No, no. Go home, Yata. I don’t need you anymore for tonight. I have Shinichi and Chiharu covering your section,” the owner said.

“I don’t understand.” Misaki felt the tears welling up again. Nothing could go right today. “I did…I did everything that you asked. I went and apologized. I groveled and did whatever he wanted without complaint. He forgave me. Isn’t it okay now?”

“After the scene you made, I can’t just let you go back out there. I have other customers to think about,” the owner explained. There wasn’t any malice or anger in his words, but Misaki couldn’t register that over the disappointed ache in his chest.

“Am I fired then?”

The owner frowned, and sighed, looking away, “I like you, Yata. You work hard and you bring in a lot of customers. I know it doesn’t seem fair, that man can come in here and do as he pleases. Listen, just don’t come by for a little while. Give the customers a chance to cool off, forget what happened. Come back in…a month, maybe? And we’ll see if I can put you on a lunch shift.”

Misaki nodded, and rubbed a hand across his face. He wasn’t fired, at least. There was a possibility for more work in the future. A month was a long time though. That made two part-time jobs in one day that he couldn’t rely on for money. At least he’d made enough that night to pay off the rest of last month’s rent. He had until the end of the week to figure out what to do for that month. He shuffled to the back of the restaurant, emptied the apron pocket into his trouser pockets, and left. The chilly air nipped at his bare arms. Winter was coming in fast. He’d have to make sure Megumi and Minoru’s warm weather clothes still fit and figure out how to get them new jackets if not. He headed back for home, ready to slide into bed and try again tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to add this disclaimer last chapter: I don't personally believe that there is anything wrong with a boy wearing dresses or feminine clothes, or that there is anything wrong with posing for erotic photos, if that is the person's choice. The issue with Yata here is that he doesn't *want* to do it. Tatsuo is trying to exploit Yata into doing something he doesn't want to or feel comfortable doing by taking advantage of his need for money. The other issue is that Tatsuo is targeting Yata because he looks a lot younger than he is, so, Tatsuo is trying to satiate his collectors' (and his own) sort of pedophilic interests -- that's a different ethics argument altogether, tho. Just wanted to make that clear.

Misaki knew something was wrong the moment he turned the corner for his apartment complex. There were loud noises and more lights on than usual. He kicked against the pavement, increasing his forward momentum on the skateboard, wanting to get home faster, when he heard a bloodcurdling scream cut through the night.

“Megumi,” he gasped, pushing to a breakneck pace.

He kicked his board into his hand, rushing up the staircase and stumbled to a halt on the last step. His apartment door was wide open. There were two men carrying out the few items that the Yata family kept inside. Misaki’s first thought was that they were being robbed, and without much thinking beyond that, anger and desperation overtook him. He bolted at them.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? This is my stuff! And none of its worth money! You can’t take it,” he screamed, lunging at one of the men swinging his skateboard wildly at them. They dropped what they were carrying with a crash, and easily wrestled him to the ground, pinning his arms behind his back. He kicked at them and bit one on the arm, which earned him a hard cuff across the back of his head that left a ringing in his ears.

“Stop fighting, Yata. You’ll only make things worse for yourself,” a familiar voice said.

Misaki froze, peering up through his bleary eyes to find his landlady standing in the apartment doorframe. When the men were certain he’d given up, they released him and resumed their work. Misaki picked himself off the ground.

“What’s going on? Why are they taking all of our things?” he demanded, his head throbbing and his heart aching, “Where are my brother and sister?”

“You’re being evicted. They’re taking your things to the curb; you can collect them there. As for your siblings…”

“Misaki,” Minoru called in a muted voice. Misaki looked around, finding him standing in the shadows nearby. Megumi was hugging onto his waist, face buried in his chest and body wracked with terrified sobs. “I tried to keep them out, but they pushed the door open. What’s going on, Misaki? Why are they doing this?”

Relief spread through Misaki at the sight. They were okay. He straightened and picked himself off the ground. They needed him to pull himself together.

“I have the money,” Misaki fumbled in his pockets for his bundles of tips from lunch and dinner. He held them out and the landlady snatched the money as soon as it was within reach. She unfolded the rolls and started counting. “Please don’t kick us out. I have the rent, so you can’t…”

“Good. This is everything you owe me,” she shoved the money into her bra.

“Okay. Good. I need to put my brother and sister to bed then, so can your goons bring our stuff back in…?”

The landlady lifted a brow, “Do you have next month’s rent?”

Misaki’s face fell.

“Even if the answer was yes, you would still be kicked out. You’re late every month on rent and there’ve been complaints about you from the other tenants. Tenants who pay their rent on time.” The landlady said. Misaki noticed Mister Subaru’s window curtain drawn back a bit, the old man was watching. Misaki felt his blood curdling, angry thoughts blistering in his chest.

“But still…you can’t put us out in the middle of the night. I’ve got children. Can’t you just give us until morning, please. Let them sleep and we’ll move out first thing,” Misaki pleaded.

“Children? Morning? Night? What difference does any of that make to me? This isn’t a charity. Now’s the best time for them to learn that there aren’t any handouts in life, and that their brother is an unreliable and worthless lout,” the landlady said, pouring venom into her every word.

Misaki picked Megumi up and led Minoru by the hand down to watch the men finish removing all of their things from the apartment. He winced when they dropped the kotatsu unceremoniously to the ground and the legs splintered on impact. When they were finished, there wasn’t much in the pile. They didn’t spare the siblings a second glance as the landlady locked up the apartment, and they left.

They had to leave behind all the furniture and anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Misaki packed all of the little ones’ clothes into a bag, and a change of clothes for himself, their schoolbooks, Megumi’s favorite toy and Minoru’s picture book of insects. He wrapped both children up in as many layers of clothes as he could and strapped their folded bedrolls to the top of the bag. He found, towards the bottom of the pile, the picture of their parents. He turned it over, too ashamed to look into their eyes, and shoved it in the bag. Minoru took one of the small bags, and Misaki carried the rest on his back with Megumi in his arms, skateboard in one hand, and Minoru’s hand in the other.

For the next twenty minutes or so, they wandered through the night. Misaki felt numb, he couldn’t register the cold even as his body trembled from it. His siblings had been quiet until Minoru stopped, forcing Misaki to stop as well.

“What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?” Minoru whispered.

“I’m tired, Misaki,” Megumi whimpered.

“I don’t know,” Misaki replied, barely able to hear his own words. Megumi was crying again, her tears hot against Misaki’s neck.

“What happened? Why did they put all our stuff outside? Why can’t we go back home? Why?”

“Didn’t you hear her? Because I’m unreliable and worthless. That’s why. Now be quiet and let me think,” Misaki snapped. He bit his tongue and turned his head away, looking in every direction but at his brother, while tightening his hold on the smaller boy’s hand. He spotted the dark silhouette of a familiar building across the street and tugged at Minoru, “Come on.”

The back entrance to the building was blocked from the street. Misaki had to put Megumi down, instructing Minoru to hold onto her hand. He knelt to examine the lock and clicked his tongue. Way more sophisticated than their old bathroom lock, there was no way he could pick it even if he did have his twisted bit of paperclip.

“Misaki, what are we doing? This place is closed, we can’t stay here,” Minoru said.

“It’s fine, Minoru. It’s the community center, right? And we’re part of the community. Of course, we can be here,” Misaki insisted.

There was a window over the door with a thin curtain pulled over it. He could see that all the lights were out inside. He’d brought Minoru and Megumi there a couple times to swim in the pool, but he stopped because it was rundown and Minoru had once gotten really sick after swimming there. He didn’t see any cameras in the area, and suspected there weren’t any alarms in the building. Community could barely afford the upkeep; security was out of the question.

Misaki considered his skateboard and quickly dismissed the thought. It would make too much noise. He opened the bag with their clothes and pulled out the extra shirt he’d packed for himself. He wrapped it around his hand and took a deep breath before punching the window with all his strength. It cracked but didn’t fall. He hit it again. In all, it took four strikes before he cleared out enough glass to reach his hand through. He had to stand on the tips of his toes, ignoring the stinging as the broken glass scraped at his forearm, but he managed to flip the lock. He opened the door and hurried his siblings inside, gathering their stuff off the ground and glancing around behind them.

The community center had a pool, basketball court, and a public bath. All of the lights were out and the services were off. Some of the rooms were locked. Misaki led them into one of the locker rooms where people could change. The bathroom didn’t have a door on it, so it wasn’t locked up, and it was the only room that didn’t have windows to the outside. He set up a bedroll for Megumi and Minoru to share.

“Lay down. Go to sleep,” he instructed them.

“Misaki, you’re bleeding,” Megumi said.

Despite her comment, it still took Misaki several seconds to notice the gashes on his forearm left behind by the door. Blood had trickled down his hand, dripped on the floor and soaked through the side of his t-shirt. He frowned, grabbing his extra shirt and wrapping it around the injury. He sat down close to their bedroll, leaning his back against the wall.

“I’m okay. It’s nothing. Go to sleep,” he told her, “In the morning, we’ll go visit Miss Tegui and maybe she’ll make pancakes.”

“Aren’t we going to school tomorrow?” Minoru asked. His eyes were downcast and he was picking at his backpack, “You never let us skip school.”

“No. I think it’s okay if you miss just the one day,” Misaki mumbled, shifting as Megumi crawled into his lap, “Just this once.”

Minoru lowered his head and said, “I changed my mind. I don’t want a skateboard for my birthday anymore.” He flopped down on the bedroll with his back to his brother. Pain cinched in Misaki’s chest at the words.

_Unreliable and worthless_.

“You can’t sleep like this, monster,” Misaki said to Megumi, sweeping the hair from her eyes, “Go lay with Minoru.”

“But I’m scared, Misaki, I want to stay with you,” she whimpered, “You weren’t there and those people came. They took all our stuff and pushed Minoru on the floor.”

Misaki’s hand curled into a first, “I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here, watching over you, so you don’t have to be scared. I won’t even close my eyes for a second.”

“Really?” Megumi eyed him uncertainly, and he knew her doubt in him at that moment would be the most painful part of the entire day.

“Really,” he pressed a kiss to her forehead, “If you get too scared, call my name, and you’ll see, I’ll be here. But you need to sleep.”

“Okay…” Megumi murmured, untangling herself from Misaki and wandering to the bedroll. She laid down next to Minoru and pressed her face against his back.

Misaki watched them both for several tens of minutes, until their breathing became light and he could hear their soft snores. He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. After their parents’ accident, he didn’t cry about them for a full week no matter how many times he felt on the edge ready to break. He could remember the exact moment when those tears finally came, it sprung fresh to his mind as though it happened yesterday.

It was the night he’d gotten to take his first bath since deciding to quit school and take responsibility for his siblings. A whole week of fighting with Minoru, sorting through the paperwork, making the funeral arrangements for his mother and step-father, and listening to Megumi scream non-stop at the top of her lungs. Every part of his body had ached and, in the morning, he had to start looking for work. Miss Tegui had finally found time to stop in and take over the little ones. She had sent Misaki upstairs to rest. He could still remember the relief as he sank into the warm water. In the echoing silence of the bathroom, he had thought of his last conversation with his mother. He had found the bento she’d packed him the morning of the accident, she had tucked it in the fridge. He gave it to Minoru to split with Megumi. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at it.

Why hadn’t he taken the bento? His mother had always made sure to put his favorite foods in and make it cute. That was when the tears had started and he couldn’t make them stop. He’d pressed a fist to his mouth to muffle the sobs, he didn’t want anyone in the house to hear. She was gone, his mom was gone, and he was alone now. Minoru and Megumi had their grandparents, without Misaki, he was sure they’d take the little ones in. Misaki had a father who’s name he didn’t know that never wanted him, and that was it. It wasn’t fair of him to keep the children, was it? Wasn’t he just making decisions for his own selfish reasons?

Misaki blinked back into the community center, dismissing the memory back to the dark recesses of his mind. He dug into his pocket and pulled out the bit of paper that Tatsuo guy had given him at the restaurant. It was crumpled and the edge had torn a bit. There was a logo on the left of some cute mascot character surrounded by stars. The writing on the card was colorful in all pastels: _Tatsuo Hironori; CEO, Head Photographer, and Talent Scout; Strawberry Cream Agency_.

“Five hundred thousand yen in two hours,” Misaki murmured. It was more money than he could hope to make in an entire month and all he had to do was wear a dress and take some pictures. He could make more money if he posed with other models. He just had to put up with whatever weird things they made him do. He buried his face in his knees, his entire body flushed. “What am I thinking.”

Misaki grabbed the bag where he’d shoved the pictures of their parents and dug out the frame with his mother’s portrait in it. The glass over her face was cracked. He wiped the back of his hand over his eyes, flipped the picture over and removed the backing. Behind the picture was a folded piece of paper. He picked it up and gently put the frame with the portrait aside, sitting back against the wall again. He unfolded the paper, it was tattered and over-worn at the creases. The black ink of the handwritten instructions was faded. He held it like a precious artifact, mouthing each instruction as he read it: _1) Make yummy food, 2) Give Minoru his medicine, 3) Support Megumi in the bath…_

Until he reached the bottom two.

…_remind them that I love them…_

He put his hand over the last line, unable to bring himself to read it. Closed his eyes and folded the paper up and tucked it behind the picture again, refitting the backing on the frame. He took a deep breath and turned it over to look at his mother’s image. He couldn’t hold her serene gaze, lowering his eyes.

“I know that you’ll be disappointed in me but if I do it just one time, that’s all I need to get us back on track and I won’t ever do it again,” Misaki whispered, “After that, I promise, I’ll do better to be a good brother. I won’t yell at Minoru anymore and I’ll be there to protect Megumi. I’ll hold my temper and I’ll work harder so that I won’t lose any more jobs; I’ll find us a place to live in and pay the rent on time every month even if I have to skip every meal every day, and sell my skateboard, and…and go without a jacket this winter, next winter, every winter. But just this once, I have to do it, but only once, so please…please, don’t be mad at me.”

He shoved the picture back into the bag and the business card into his pocket again.

…

Before sunrise, Misaki shook his siblings awake. He packed up their things, swept Megumi into his arms, and grabbed Minoru by the hand. He hadn’t slept for a second, too scared of what could happen if he let his guard down. He was sure his heart stopped when he heard voices at the front of the community center, from the sounds of them, people who worked there had arrived to open it for the day. Misaki and his siblings snuck out the backway where they had come in and practically ran down the street, until Misaki was certain no one was following or had seen them.

It was just past dawn when they reached Miss Tegui’s house. Misaki had his eyes on the ground when the door swung open.

“Yata…children…” Miss Tegui began a surprise laden greeting that died in her throat as she took in their appearance.

“I’m sorry to come so early, Miss Tegui, but…” Misaki mumbled, shifting Megumi in his arms.

“Stop wasting your breath and hurry inside. It’s cold out and you’re not properly dressed. Where is your jacket? Have you eaten? I’ll make breakfast,” Miss Tegui ushered them in. She took Megumi from Misaki, as the boys swapped out their indoor shoes, her eyes lingering on the fresh scars on Misaki’s arm, dried blood crusted around the edges and streaked everywhere. The hand he used to punch out the glass had swollen and discolored overnight. “Put your things down in here. I’m glad you came today, actually. I had something to give you but I wasn’t sure I’d see you again in time. It would be nice if I had a way to contact you.”

They followed her into the house, leaving their bags to one side of the room. Minoru curled up under the kotatsu, and Megumi, from Miss Tegui’s arms, reached for Misaki, whining his name. Misaki took her back and her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. He could feel her entire body shaking, and he pushed away the ashamed thought of how scared she must’ve been when the landlady and her goons showed up while Misaki wasn’t there.

“Sit, sit,” Miss Tegui instructed him, “You look like you haven’t slept in ages.”

It was only one night, Misaki thought, but nodded and went to sit under the kotatsu. He ended up passing out on the floor, Megumi laying heavy across his chest. He woke he didn’t know how long later to the smell of food. The little ones were seated around him eating. He could hear Minoru answering some questions Miss Tegui was asking about the night before.

“No…no…we moved out this morning,” Minoru was lying, Misaki realized, “Some of the neighbors were being weird is all, so Misaki said we’d look for somewhere else to live today.”

“What about your furniture and other belongings?” Miss Tegui asked, “Didn’t you have that old kotatsu?”

“It stopped working,” Minoru said quickly, “We don’t need it anyway. We’ll get new things.”

Misaki sat up, and put a hand on Minoru’s head to quiet him. He couldn’t lift his eyes to meet the old woman’s concerned gaze.

“We got evicted. I was late on some rent payments,” he explained.

“Don’t say it like that. That witch wasn’t being fair. You gave her the money and she still kicked us out,” Minoru cried. Misaki shook his head.

“I was able to settle all my debts with the landlady, but I didn’t have rent for next month. It’ll be okay, though. I have a plan. Until then, Miss Tegui, can we borrow your floor for a few nights?” Misaki clapped his palms together and ducked his head, “I promise, it’ll only be for a short while. No longer than a week. I just need to borrow your phone and…”

“No longer than a week? But you just said you have no money. Where will you find to live if you can’t pay move-in costs?” Miss Tegui interjected.

“I can. Or…I’ll be able to after today. I think. I just need to make a phone call and if I can leave Minoru and Megumi here for a short time, few hours,” Misaki frowned and shook his head, explaining, “I have a one-time job offer. It’s two-hours, they’ll pay me five hundred thousand. It’ll be enough to get us a new place, and in a week, I can find new part-time work...”

“Five hundred thousand? What kind of job pays five hundred thousand for two hours?” Miss Tegui gasped.

“Don’t worry about it,” Misaki told her.

“How can you tell me that and expect me not to worry?”

“It’s not illegal, alright?”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better? If you can’t tell me what it is…”

“It’s a paying job. That’s what it is. It’ll get us through the month and into a new place, and that’s all I need right now. You don’t have to worry about me!”

“Yata Misaki, you look me in the eye and tell me it’s something your mother would approve of, because if your mother wouldn’t…”

Misaki slammed his fist on the kotatsu top causing all the plates to clatter, effectively silencing the entire room.

“Don’t lecture me about my mother,” he cried, “She’s not here. Even when she was, it’s not like I ever did anything she approved of anyway. What does it matter if I continue to disappoint her now that she’s gone, when I already disappointed her every day that she was here? I have to take care of Megumi and Minoru, it doesn’t matter what happens to me, whatever I have to do…so long as I can make them yummy food, and…and…make sure they do their homework…and take their baths, brush their teeth, and…” He folded his arms on top of the kotatsu and buried his face in them, suddenly feeling the full weight of his exhaustion, “I don’t have a choice here. Don’t make it harder than it already is.”

They were quiet for a few seconds, no sound but the rustle of air outside and the soft in and out of their breathing. Miss Tegui stood and cleared Megumi and Minoru's bowls from the table. She pushed an empty one towards Misaki and left for the kitchen. When she returned, she slammed a piece of paper on the table in front of Misaki and retook her seat. He stared at it blankly. It had writing on it in Miss Tegui’s hand.

“Atsuji Tomiko…Fushimi Estate…” Misaki finally looked up at Miss Tegui, puzzle written in his features, “What is this?”

“It’s another option. It won’t pay you five hundred thousand in two hours but it’s full-time and it'll pay you more than the part-time jobs you’ve been working for the same number of hours. It’s steady work, too. You don’t have to worry if it’ll be there tomorrow.” Miss Tegui folded her hands on the table and pressed her lips together. “That friend I told you I was meeting yesterday, Tomiko, she’s the full-time groundskeeper at a wealthy family’s local house. She does the upkeep work on it when they’re out of town, and sees to their needs when they’re in-town. She’s retiring in a month and she’s been given the okay by her employers to find and start training a replacement. I asked her to consider you.”

Misaki picked the paper up, he needed to feel it in his hands to be sure it was real. He realized he was holding his breath and let it out in a slow sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Finally get to the job offer. I didn't warn, did I? This is going to be a *long* story and the romance will be a bit of a slow burn, and then it'll go through the ups and downs of Fushimi & Yata's relationship, because Fushimi is super dysfunctional and Yata can't just involve himself with someone without thinking of his brother and sister. Anyhow...thoughts? Thanks for reading.


	7. Chapter 7

Misaki stood on the edge of the sidewalk gaping up at the Fushimi Estate. He’d never seen a house that large, it looked more like a castle. It was built in the western style, like something out of the English countryside. There was a courtyard out front with a fountain, and perfectly manicured landscaping surrounded the house. The old woman, Mrs. Atsuji, met him out front. She was tall and slim, and her thin gray hair was twisted into a braid down her back. She gave him a precursory once over, frowning at what she saw. Until that moment, they’d only spoken on the phone.

“How old are you again?” she asked.

“Seventeen,” he shifted uncomfortably under her scrutinizing stare, nervously rubbing a hand over the back of his head, “I guess everyone does say I look younger.”

“Hisako says you’re good at housework,” Mrs. Atsuji said, her look was skeptical.

“I help Miss Tegui out around the house a lot, and I have to clean up after my younger siblings, too.”

“And you can cook? Sometimes you’ll be asked to cook.”

“Like I told you on the phone, I make all the meals for my siblings and me,” Misaki tightened his grip under his skateboard. She had said over the phone she’d give him a chance, but the way she was looking at him now, he was beginning to worry she changed her mind. “I know I don’t seem like it, but I’m a hard worker. I do house-cleaning all the time. I even like doing it. Really, I do. I like cooking too and I can cook alright. Nothing professional, but when my little sister isn’t hanging off me, and I can focus on it, my food turns out pretty good. It’s all edible, anyways.”

Mrs. Atsuji continued to survey Misaki a moment longer and sweat gathered at his brow, heart sinking in his chest. Maybe he was going to have to wear a dress after all.

“It’s true what Hisako said, then, you’ve been raising your two siblings on your own,” she said.

Misaki’s heart quickened. He didn’t know Miss Tegui had mentioned it to her friend, and he would’ve preferred she not.

“I’m not here for a handout or charity or anything like that,” Misaki told her in a more forceful tone than he should have. He flustered, lowering his eyes to the ground as he spoke, “It’s true that I need this job because of my situation. If I’m being honest, I’m desperate for this job, but doesn’t that make me a better fit? I’m ready to put my everything into it. I’ll work hard every day, and if there’s anything I don’t know how to do or I’m not good at, I’ll continue working on it at home until I can prove to you that I’ll be a perfect replacement. I won’t let you down. I can’t afford it.”

“Hisako also said that,” Mrs. Atsuji said.

Misaki glanced up at her and she gestured for him to follow. They made their way up the courtyard and into the house. The entryway was huge with marble flooring, a crystal chandelier hanging overhead, and twin spiral staircases. Misaki had only ever seen such a structure in picture books. Although the building itself was beautiful and impressive, something about the room seemed off. Misaki removed his shoes and accepted the house slippers that Mrs. Atsuji offered.

“Why is this place so empty?” he wondered. There was some furniture, a bookshelf and a stand, but there was nothing on either of them. It was weird and somewhat eerie. His voice echoed through the room.

“The family doesn’t keep anything of value out when they’re away,” Mrs. Atsuji explained, “You’ll be responsible for setting them back up and storing them away again. Don’t think this means you won’t have to clean the items that go in any of these rooms, either. You’ll need to clean and polish everything regularly, in case, you need to bring them out of storage at the last minute.”

“Okay,” Misaki followed Mrs. Atsuji farther into the house, “How often is the family away for?”

“The lady of the house is Mrs. Fushimi Kisa, she’s gone most of the year, and is also the only one you’ll need to worry about bringing the items out of storage for. In fact, there are explicit instructions _not_ to give storeroom access to her husband. When they argue, she cuts him off financially, and she doesn’t want him pawning anything in the house during those times. If anything does disappear, it’ll be taken out of your salary. Understand?”

“O-oh…okay, yeah.” Misaki hurried to keep up, the old woman moved swiftly through the halls and he kept trailing behind to gape at the massive rooms and intricate architectural designs that they passed. Even empty, the rooms looked luxurious and expensive.

“That said, you’ll encounter her husband, Mr. Fushimi Niki, the most. He returns, at least, once a month. It’s best to make yourself scarce when he’s around. Continue with your responsibilities, but discretely, make sure he doesn’t see you,” Mrs. Atsuji continued. She stopped suddenly and spun around, fixing Misaki with a grave expression. He stumbled to halt mere inches from running into her. “It’s best to be clear now, and I recommend if you remember nothing else from today, remember this: Mrs. Fushimi Kisa is your employer. No other member of this household has the authority to change the terms of your service here or to terminate your employment.”

Misaki frowned but nodded, curious about the comment. What kind of a family was this that something like that needed to be made clear?

“With the rest of the family, I recommend you be polite, serve them within the terms of your position, but steer clear of them otherwise and, if need be, disregard them altogether. If you can manage that, the rest of your work here will be simple and easy,” Mrs. Atsuji said.

They continued moving through the halls towards the back of the house. Misaki was growing more concerned that the thing he would forget was the layout of this building. He wondered how long it would take before he could move as easily through this labyrinth as Mrs. Atsuji. He hoped it was before he finished his training with her.

“Are there other family members I should know about other than the lady and her husband?” Misaki asked. She talked about the family like there were more but had left it off at them.

“There’s a son. Come to think of it…seventeen, huh? He’s around the same age as you…he’ll be seventeen next month. Not that it matters, you aren’t likely to ever see him. He hasn’t been back to the estate since he left for high school. He lives in the dorms there, and stays over the holiday breaks,” Mrs. Atsuji said.

“I guess there’s not much reason to come back if his parents aren’t ever home,” Misaki mused.

“I doubt that’s his reason,” Mrs. Atsuji replied, but she didn’t elaborate further, “Even if he does show up, I suspect you still won’t see him. You’ll only know he’s here when you find the unmade bed, convenience food wrappers, and dirty clothes. In that case, you can leave the bed unmade, he’ll complain if you touch it – not to you, but to his mother. You do not want him to complain about you to his mother. She’ll ignore her husband’s complaints, but she’ll consider her son’s. You may wash his clothes, and put them on his bed, folded, and clear the trash.”

They had reached their destination, the kitchen. It was the first fully furnished room, with pots and pans and dishes, and fancy new appliances.

Misaki marveled. It was actually an understatement to say that he liked cooking. In truth, he loved it. It was one of the first things that he could do well when it came to taking care of his siblings because he’d spent so much time in the kitchen helping his mother when he was little, before his step-father came along. She’d taught him several recipes, and he had to learn more once it was up to him to make all of the meals. It turned out that he liked learning new recipes and experimenting with the food too. There was also something comforting about cooking a meal from the heart. It warmed the entire house; even cheap foods were inviting and wonderful when made in your own kitchen. He could only afford so many ingredients, seasonings, and kitchenware, so a fully stocked kitchen was overwhelming for him and the notion that he would get to make meals in that place filled his heart with anticipation.

“You won’t have to cook for the family often. Even when the husband is home, you’re not expected to make him any meals, and like I said, stay out of his sight. As for the son, he would never ask for anything. When the lady comes home, however, be prepared to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and to occasionally prepare meals for guests. There’s an account you can use for groceries when the family is in town or to purchase more cleaning supplies. The lady closely monitors the money, so you’ll need to keep all of your receipts and logs of what you cooked, when, and for who. We’ll go over all of that later,” Mrs. Atsuji said. She indicated a closet to the side and opened the door. It was a large storeroom filled with cleaning supplies, “This is your base of operations. The kitchen and this store room is your domain. You can set anything in here up the way that you like. You’ll need to keep inventory of everything, and hide what you feel necessary if the husband is ever home.”

“That seems a bit strange,” Misaki commented.

“It’ll make more sense when you meet him,” Mrs. Atsuji assured Misaki. She pulled an apron off a hook near the storeroom door and held it out for Misaki, which he took and wrapped around his waist.

“Ah…you said dinner?” Misaki said, “I thought this job ended at two.”

“You’re worried about the little ones and picking them up from school. When the lady of the house is here, you’ll work a split schedule. Which should give you time to pick them up and drop them off at home,” Mrs. Atsuji answered.

“I can’t leave them there alone though,” Misaki lowered his head, fidgeting with the apron fabric, remembering what happened the first and last, if he could help it, time he left them alone.

“You’ll have to find someone to watch them, then,” Mrs. Atsuji pursed her lips. “If they’re well-behaved and quiet, and you absolutely have no other options, you might be able to bring them here. The family doesn’t usually come back into this area but I wouldn’t suggest staking your job here on it.”

“It won’t be a problem. I’ll figure it out,” Misaki hastily replied. The lady of the house didn’t come home often, according to Mrs. Atsuji, so he would focus on learning the job first and deal with it when it came up.

“Right,” Mrs. Atsuji looked dubious, “Let’s get started on the daily tasks.”

Everything was to be swept, vacuumed, mopped, dusted, and polished every day. The lack of items in each room made things go a lot faster than Misaki would’ve expected for such a large house. They opened all of the curtains, to make the house look nicer and lived in from an outsider’s perspective, explained Mrs. Atsuji. Misaki would soon learn, appearance was everything to the Fushimi family. Closing the curtains at the end of the day would be Misaki’s final task before his shift ended.

They took a break for lunch at eleven. Misaki unwrapped his bento that he’d brought and Mrs. Atsuji watched him curiously. He’d packed leftovers from the dinner he helped Miss Tegui make the night before: rice that he had shaped like a panda bear using nori sheet cutouts for the black parts, he used cucumber slices and steamed gobo to create a bamboo forest, grilled mackerel placed skin side up for a silvery river, and as filler he had tucked in strawberries that he’d cut to look like flowers.

“Oh my! It’s so cute! Look at the adorable little details,” Mrs. Atsuji gushed, startling Misaki so that he almost dropped his entire lunch. She’d been stern all morning, he hadn’t thought her capable of a soft side. She perched at his shoulder, cooing over the creation, “Did you make this?”

“I…uh…” Misaki’s face warmed with color, as he stammered excuses, “Yeah…I make them for my siblings. Our mom used to pack them bento like these and they complain if I don’t. It’s easier if I just do them all like this.”

“I just love cute bento but I don’t have children to make them for anymore. All my children have grown up and moved away,” Mrs. Atsuji confessed, clutching the sides of her face, eyes sparkling, “You make these every day? That’s such dedication.”

“Uh…yeah,” Misaki poked at his lunch with his chopsticks, “I guess. I don’t think about it anymore, really. I’ve been doing it so long.”

“I never would’ve expected it from you when I saw you this morning. You look like a hooligan, you know, with the oversized clothes and the skateboard,” Mrs. Atsuji said, “How old are the little ones?”

“Um…Minoru is turning ten in two weeks, and Megumi is five now,” Misaki answered, taking a bite of his fish.

“Young. They grow up fast, though. You’ll miss when they were little. That’s when they’re easiest,” Mrs. Atsuji said. She unwrapped her own lunch, egg salad sandwiches.

“Minoru’s never been easy. Megumi got easier when she could talk, though,” Misaki replied.

“How long have you been taking care of them on your own?” Mrs. Atsuji asked.

Misaki hesitated. He didn’t like talking about the past as it was, but there was also the paranoid part of him that remembered the constant threat of authorities coming to take the children away and break up their family.

“Four years,” he whispered, popping a bit of rice into his mouth.

“You were young. You still are,” Mrs. Atsuji noted quietly. “I was twenty-two with four little ones when my husband was killed. He was a soldier during the war. My oldest was five.”

Misaki swallowed down a strawberry, his eyes wide as he imagined having to deal with a second set of Megumi and Minoru, he grimaced, “That sounds like a nightmare.”

“I thought it would break me. I cried myself to sleep many nights and I got acquainted with exhaustion and sore muscles, my dear old friends. I can look back now and see I was lucky. I started cleaning houses with a friend. We took turns watching each other’s children while the other did the housework. It kept us afloat. Sure, there were hard times. We had to sell our home, and the younger children had to make-do with hand-me-downs from the older siblings. I went without new clothes for years at a time…I used to have a new outfit every spring.

“Some seasons, families would pass on housekeepers and I’d have to tighten up on grocery bills and stretch our budget thin. Everyone kept telling me to remarry, find a man willing to take care of me, but my husband was the love of my life…I couldn’t look at another man and I wouldn’t put someone else through a marriage of convenience for my own sake. It wasn’t until I took this position twenty years ago that I felt I could finally breathe easy. These days, though, with the cost of everything and jobs willing to pay a decent salary so scarce…I couldn’t imagine trying to raise small children by myself in this time,” Mrs. Atsuji took a bit of her sandwich, and for a moment they sat in silence, chewing their respective meals. “You said outside that you didn’t want hand-outs or charity.”

“I don’t. I made the choice to take care of my siblings. It’s my responsibility.”

“You’ve got a lot of pride, is it?” Mrs. Atsuji commented.

“I’ve heard pride is everything to a man,” Misaki mumbled bitterly, absently running his hand across the back of his neck.

“Word of advice from an old woman that’s been in shoes like yours: don’t be so quick to dismiss earnest help. Pride has no place in raising children, especially in your situation. Sometimes, the strongest thing you can do is get on your knees and ask for help, and if someone is willing to give you hand-outs or charity, you take it without thinking twice,” Mrs. Atsuji finished up her sandwich and stood to wash her hands.

Misaki continued to pick at his own meal for a few more minutes, before repacking it half-eaten.

They continued with the daily tasks, finishing up the rest of the rooms. After, Mrs. Atsuji showed him charts hanging in the cleaning supplies room.

“I use these to keep track of the non-daily tasks. There are weekly, biweekly, and monthly things you’ll need to do. I’ve marked on here the last time I did each one,” she handed the charts over to Misaki for a closer look. The tasks included things like bleaching the toilets and bathtubs, and turning down the linens, taking the curtains out for cleaning. “I’ll go over how to do each of these with you this month before I leave.”

Next, Mrs. Atsuji pointed to a list of names and phone numbers that hung next to the charts of chores. “If there’s ever a problem with the electric, plumbing, anything like that, you can call the appropriate repairmen on this list. These are the only ones you’re approved to call. Don’t call anyone else, thinking you’ll help a friend get a job, or it will come out of your salary. The landscapers on here too. They come out every week, but if you notice anything out of the ordinary, you’ll call them to come immediately”

“Right,” Misaki pinched his nose. There was so much to remember and these Fushimi people seemed so particular, they had special instructions for their special instructions.

“Before we end the day, I should warn you: don’t think that you can relax on any of the chores because of the family being away so often. They won’t notify you when they’re coming to town and there is no rhyme or reason to their appearances. While the husband cannot fire you himself, he will not hesitate to inform his wife if you’re slacking on your responsibilities, and there are cameras throughout the house to prove if he’s right.”

Mrs. Atsuji tilted her head to one side, examining Misaki and placing her hands in her pocket.

“I hope that all goes without saying, but I will tell you this, just in case. When I started here there were originally two full-time housekeepers. Me and another girl. She got comfortable slipping out of work early and leaving chores for tomorrow. When the lady found out, she fired the girl and never replaced her. Her reasoning was that if there wasn’t enough work for that girl to show up every day, there wasn’t a need for two housekeepers.”

“You don’t have to worry about me. I definitely won’t slack,” Misaki promised.

“See that you don’t. There’s a small lock box outside, your salary will be deposited there at the beginning of every week. It’s never late. If the lady of the house wants to communicate with you any changes to your employment or work here, it will be in that box in letter form with her signature. Before I leave, I’ll go over the set of keys for everything and hand them over to you.” Mrs. Atsuji led the way for the front door.

“Thank you for everything. I won’t let you down. You’ll see,” Misaki told her at the door. She nodded, but her expression remained unmoved.

“Be here early tomorrow morning,” she said, and closed the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...Fushimi doesn't make his return appearance until chapter 13, in case you were wondering how many chapters I have written so far. I did not intend for his re-entrance to take this long.


	8. Chapter 8

Megumi’s little face peeked out the window as Misaki made his way up the walk. She opened the door when he reached the porch and crashed into his legs.

“You’re back, you’re back,” she exclaimed. He sighed, lamenting that he thought she was clingy _before_ the landlady and her goons tossed them out. She beamed up at him with a bright smile, “Welcome home, Misaki.”

“Let me in, at least,” he complained, picking her up and draping her over a shoulder, a strange pang in his chest. He bit his tongue on the bitter retort that this wasn’t their home, and exchanged his shoes for house slippers, set his skateboard by the door, and carried her back into the house.

“We went to the fish market today and a bakery to get a surprise for Minoru, because it’s his birthday, and there was a park we saw, it had ponds full of fish. Can we go, Misaki? Can we, please?” Megumi rattled off.

“Maybe on my day off,” Misaki told her.

Miss Tegui was in the kitchen making preparations for dinner and Minoru was nowhere to be found. Misaki dropped Megumi off at the kotatsu.

“Welcome back,” Miss Tegui greeted when he entered the kitchen.

“I’ll make dinner tonight. So, you don’t have to worry about it,” Misaki told her.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve already started it and you’ve been working all day. Go sit down, relax,” Miss Tegui shooed him away.

“We’re imposing on you, though,” Misaki insisted, even though his heart wasn’t in it. He could still feel soap scum on his hands and silver polish under his finger nails. The work at the Fushimi Estate wasn’t difficult, but it was surprisingly exhausting.

“Nonsense. It’s nice having the little ones here. You almost never bring them by,” Miss Tegui said, returning to her work. “It really makes me miss those days when your family lived next door, watching the little ones roam around like when my children were little…”

She faltered, realizing her own words. She looked to the teenaged boy with concern. Misaki’s face was clouded, and eyes unfocused. He blinked it away and forced a smile.

“Sorry…it wasn’t easy bringing them up here from where we lived before, but maybe after I find a new place. I have to find somewhere closer to that Fushimi Estate, don’t I?” Misaki said, and sighed, as he thought about what that meant for the little ones.

“The children will have to change schools,” Miss Tegui voiced his concerns.

“Yeah. It’s too far to drop them off and make it into work, otherwise,” Misaki leaned against the counter and folded his arms over his stomach, frowning at the floor. “They’re just starting to get settled into the school they’re at. It’s all my fault they’ve got to move again.”

“You do the best you can for them, Yata, they may not understand it now but they will when they’re older,” Miss Tegui told him.

“My best, huh?” Yata smirked wryly, “Maybe that’s the problem.”

…_unreliable…worthless…disappointment…_

Miss Tegui gave Misaki’s shoulder a shove towards the door, “Go on, take a seat and rest.”

“Okay, okay,” he mumbled, shuffling from the kitchen.

Misaki slumped to the floor next to Megumi. She had a bucket of crayons and a coloring book she was working on, things Miss Tegui kept around the house for when her grandchildren came over. He glanced over her shoulder; she was getting better at staying in the lines. Guiltily, he thought about how he could never afford to get her that many crayon colors or any coloring books to speak of. Instead, she would use scraps of paper or junk mail to draw on. Most of the money he spent for the little ones went towards school books and things they needed to use in class. Everything else went towards bills and food.

“Where’s Minoru?” he called to Miss Tegui.

“Out in the yard. He’s been out there most of the day,” Miss Tegui’s answer drifted from the kitchen.

Misaki sighed, dropping a hand to Megumi’s head and mussing her hair. “I guess I’ll go check on him.”

The sun was already beginning to set when Misaki stepped outside to find his little brother. There was a wraparound porch on the backside of the house. Minoru was laying on his belly, an overturned glass jar in front of him, that he was staring intently at and tapping every now and then. He had a large beetle trapped inside; his big book of insects was spread open on the floor beside it.

“Don’t you greet your brother when he gets back?” Misaki said, somewhat jokingly. It earned him a dark glare. Misaki coughed to clear his throat and squatted down to peer at Minoru’s catch, he wrinkled his nose, “What even is that thing?”

“I think it’s this one,” Minoru said, pointing to a picture in his book. They looked similar, both were large, ugly, brown, and had their noses extended into a long horn.

“Hercules Beetle, huh?” Misaki read off, sticking out his tongue at the bug in the jar.

“I’m going to keep him as a pet,” Minoru declared, matter-of-factly.

“Wha…?” Misaki darted his eyes up to his brother, “Who made that decision?”

“It’s my birthday present,” Minoru said, in a quiet voice, eyes fixed on the beetle and his little jaw set. The sharp squeeze on Misaki’s chest caught his next words in his throat. He lowered his head and nodded.

“Fine.”

Minoru grinned brightly, “Don’t you want to know what I’m going to name him?”

“I want to know what you’re planning on feeding it,” Misaki muttered, staring at the beetle glumly. He sat on the floor and leaned back, balancing his weight on his palms.

“Eiichi,” Minoru said, smiling radiantly at the beetle in the jar.

Misaki’s breath caught for a moment, an ache yawning through his chest. Eiichi had been the name of Minoru and Megumi’s father.

“He’ll be our house guardian from now on and he’ll take care of Megumi and me,” Minoru continued, his words sparing Misaki no amount of heartache, “He’ll keep us safe and bring us luck.”

Misaki took a few deep breaths, closing his eyes for a moment. It made sense, after everything that had happened, Minoru would want something of his father back. When their parents were alive was probably the last time Minoru remembered feeling safe and protected. He certainly couldn’t feel that way with just Misaki, given all the ways Misaki had already failed at protecting both children. Misaki pushed a smile onto his face, “That’s a good name.”

They sat there for a few minutes in silence. Misaki watched the wind rustle the tree leaves around them and Minoru admired his new friend.

“Misaki,” Minoru called his older brother out of the reverie.

“What?”

“That job that you told Miss Tegui you had…the one she didn’t want you to do…what was it?” Minoru asked. He cupped his little cheek in his hand and peered up at his older brother in earnest. Misaki felt a blush spread across his face.

“N-n-nothing. Jeez, I wouldn’t tell the old lady, why would I tell you?” Misaki stammered, flustering.

“Because I want to know! You never tell us anything. It’s not fair,” Minoru complained.

“It’s none of your business is all,” Misaki grumbled.

“But it is, isn’t it? You said you would do it for me and Megumi. Shouldn’t I be allowed to know? If it’s for me?” Minoru reasoned, he pouted at the beetle, “I’m going to be ten. I know Megumi’s still a kid, and it’s okay to keep some secrets from her, but I’m a man now.”

“A man, huh?” Misaki scoffed, stretching his hands over his head, “First thing you need to learn about being a man, is that another man’s choices are his own, and you shouldn’t pester him about them like a nagging old wife.”

“That’s so mean, Misaki,” Minoru whined, pulling himself up to a seated position.

“Then don’t be so annoying,” Misaki muttered. He could hear crickets chirping around them. He thought it would be too cold that time of year for crickets. He shuddered against a sudden breeze.

“It’s just…” Minoru’s face was downcast, shadows playing over his features. His eyes shimmered in the night, damp around the edges. “Miss Tegui was really mad at you about it and…and also, there’s what you said about mom. Is it really okay to just do whatever you want without thinking what mom would want you to do?” He turned a hard glare on his brother, “Because if that’s the case, why should I have to keep going to school or listening to you? Shouldn’t I just do whatever I want, too?”

“Since when do you listen to me?” Misaki huffed, sighing. He sat up and pulled his knees to his chest, lowering his head, “Fine. You really want to know? The job was for me to pose for pictures.”

“Pictures?” Minoru repeated dimly, “You mean…like people in magazines? What’s so bad about that?”

Misaki ducked his head, his face blistering red, as he quietly added, “I’d be wearing a dress.”

“A dress?” Minoru blinked a few times, his brow wrinkled in concern, “Why would anyone want to take pictures of you in a dress?”

Misaki winced. He was not ready to explain sexual fetishes to his kid brother when he barely understood them himself.

“Sometimes, some adults like looking at weird things,” Misaki half-heartedly said.

“Why?” Minoru asked.

“What do you mean why? How should I know? You think I like looking at pictures like that?” Misaki snapped.

“Pictures like what?”

“Like…like….” Misaki’s entire body flushed as the thoughts swarmed his mind, “No! That’s not what I meant! What I mean is…what I mean is…I don’t want to see _anybody _in a dress…wait, no…I mean...there’s nothing wrong with wearing a dress...wearing a dress isn’t the problem…there’s not really a problem with it at all…I guess…it’s just not…”

“Do you…do you want to wear a dress?” Minoru carefully questioned.

“Of course, not? What the hell kind of question is that? I didn’t take the fucking job, right?” Misaki yelled.

“You said a bad word,” Minoru smirked.

Misaki buried his face in his knees, “You’re a demon.”

“I don’t really understand, Misaki,” Minoru murmured.

“It would be better for me if you never did,” Misaki admitted.

“But I think, if it wasn’t something you wanted to do, that it’s a good you didn’t do it,” Minoru said.

“Yeah? If you say so,” Misaki smiled softly at him, “Hey, Minoru. Megumi said there was a park near here. Let’s take a walk over there before dinner, okay?”

“I don’t know, Misaki. I was kind of wanting to set up a place to keep Eiichi,” Minoru said.

“Ah…whatever,” Misaki gave his brother a sly look, “I just thought you wanted me to show you a new trick on my skateboard, is all. But if you don’t want to…”

“Really?” Minoru’s eyes lit up, “No, no! I want to go to the park. Can we, Misaki? Let’s go to the park!”

“Okay. Let me make sure Megumi’s okay with Miss Tegui, and we’ll go,” Misaki said, standing and brushing himself off.

It took a bit longer to get out the door than Misaki would’ve liked. Megumi pitched a fit that she wouldn’t get to go to the park with her older brothers, but Misaki couldn’t watch her and show Minoru anything on the skateboard at the same time. Misaki got Minoru dressed in warmer clothes, tucked his board under his arm, and led his little brother by the shoulder, following the directions Miss Tegui gave him. Once they arrived at the park, he remembered coming there years ago, when they still lived in the old house. There was a small area set up to one side that was ideal for skateboarding. The sun had fully set by the time they reached the park and there weren’t many people around, only a pack of middle school aged teenagers laughing at the jungle gym and a red-haired man, with a rough look about him, sitting on the benches smoking a cigarette.

“Let’s hang out over there,” Misaki said, finding them a place away from everyone else.

There were raised cement blocks that he could be used for grinding rails and a large expanse of empty cement. He thought about where to start. It had been awhile since he’d done anything too fancy on the board beyond heel kicks and ollies. About a year after their parents’ accident, Misaki had sprained his wrist falling off the board. For a frightful moment, he thought he might’ve broken it. He didn’t have the money for a hospital visit or to be out of work for any number of days to heal. For that same reason, he needed to think of something easy and low risk that he could teach Minoru. Minoru could barely stand on the board by himself.

“Here, I got one.” Misaki directed Minoru to sit atop one of the cement blocks. He put the board on the ground, stepped on and picked up some momentum. He jumped off the curb, turned around and jumped back up. He stopped in front of Minoru and kicked the board into his hand. “How about that?”

“It’s not that impressive,” Minoru said in a deadpan. Misaki about dropped the board.

“What do you mean ‘not impressive’? You can’t even do that much, kid. You got to start with the small stuff and work your way up,” Misaki replied. He put the board on the ground and gestured for Minoru to come over.

For the next couple tens of minutes, Misaki went over the basics with Minoru. He helped his brother on and off the board, and positioned his feet. There were a couple times that Minoru was able to keep himself moving around the lot, and after a lot of coaching, and a bit of cursing on Misaki’s side, Minoru was able to get the board off the ground for a jump. He tumbled off in the end, though, and it skid away from him. Misaki gathered the board and hurried to check on the smaller boy. Satisfied that Minoru wasn’t injured, Misaki smiled broadly at his little brother, and ruffled his hair.

“That was awesome, Minoru,” Misaki told him.

“What are you talking about? I messed it up,” Minoru complained.

“So what? You were half way there! It takes time,” Misaki put his hand on his hip and grinned, “What matters is that you keep trying and you think about how far you’ve come. Look, you couldn’t barely stand before, and now you’re moving around on your own and you even did a half jump. That’s amazing, Minoru!”

Minoru stared up at his brother’s bright face in marvel. He scrambled to his feet.

“I want to see you do it,” Minoru announced.

Misaki made a face, “Do what?”

“Your best moves. I want to see,” Minoru exclaimed. Misaki sighed, rubbing a hand over the back of his head.

“I don’t know…I mean, I haven’t in a while…and I really shouldn’t…”

“Please, Misaki. Since we’re here, anyway,” Minoru pleaded.

“Okay, okay,” Misaki smirked, thinking it couldn’t hurt as long as he didn’t get too carried away, “Go take a seat. I’ll show you what real skating looks like.”

It had been a long time since Misaki had let loose and free-styled on the board. He warmed up with a short lap around the cement lot, throwing in a few random heel kicks and rail grinds. He’d forgotten what it felt like to use his board as more than a vehicle from one job to the next. Wind whipping over him, the world fading away into a blur, and the night opening up to him every sound and scent of the city. Cars humming and the buzz of electricity, the harsh rumble of the ground rolling underneath him, and thrumming in his chest.

He started to throw in a few fancier moves, backside air into a 180, followed by kick flipping up and alternating between a nose grind and 5-0 grind across several of the cement blocks. He could hear Minoru’s sounds of excitement, and it warmed through him. At least this much he could do for his little brother. He was so caught up in putting on a good show, that he didn’t see the boys that had gathered around, or realize until it was too late to dodge when one of them tossed a metal bar in his path. Not wanting to damage his board getting the obstruction caught up in its wheels, he kicked it in one direction and tumbled the other way, bringing his arms up to protect his face and head as he hit the hard cement, rolling a few paces across the gravelly ground

“Misaki!” Minoru shouted in stun.

The boys were laughing uproariously at the display. One of them caught Misaki’s skateboard and plucked it off the ground.

Misaki pushed himself over into a semi-seated position, grimacing and inspecting his injuries, he groaned “Ow…”

As far as he could tell, there weren’t any broken bones and nothing felt sprained. Just some scrapes and there would definitely be bruising in the morning. He turned a hot glare on the boys.

“What the fuck is your problem, asshole?” he demanded, before fully processing the situation and swallowing his words.

Misaki had thought it was the middle schoolers from before, but they were long gone and these boys were older, in their late teens and early twenties. They wore street clothes, and stared down their noses at him with the arrogance of gangsters. A couple of them were sipping from beer cans, and others were smoking cigarettes. The one in front had Misaki’s skateboard in his hand. They all had the same green colored bandana twisted around their right arms.

Misaki’s senses jumped into high alert. His eyes searched out his brother. Minoru was still by the cement block where he’d been sitting, though he’d jumped to his feet when Misaki fell. He stood like a hare in a rifle’s crosshairs, watching his brother with wide eyes, waiting for instruction. Misaki carefully pulled himself to his feet, watching the older boys from the corners of his eyes. They were laughing and murmuring to one another, studying him and his brother with the ravenous look of a pack of wolves.

“Minoru, get behind me,” Misaki called, holding out a hand. Minoru darted to Misaki, burying himself against Misaki’s back and latching onto the loose t-shirt there. Misaki turned a steady gaze on the boys, “I’m just hanging out with my kid brother. We’re not bothering anyone and we don’t want trouble.”

“Oh? Which one of you is the kid brother? Aren’t you both out past your bedtime?” the boy at the front of the pack sneered.

“I’m not a kid, goddammit! I’m seventeen!” Misaki flinched, wishing he’d learned to better control his temper before he’d said that. The boys all burst out laughing.

“Seventeen he says! This little pipsqueak? What a joke! You think you’ll hit puberty by thirty?”

Misaki clenched his hands into fists and bit his tongue on his next stupid comment. “We aren’t here hurting anyone. Just give me back the skateboard and we’ll leave.”

“You want this back?” the leader of the jerks teased, lifting the board up between both his hands. Misaki placed his hand over Minoru’s trembling fist bunched up in the fabric of his shirt. “I don’t know if that’d be fair to the board…handing it back over to someone with such lame skills.”

“Shut up! My brother’s really good at skateboarding,” Minoru screamed. Misaki reached a hand around to press Minoru’s face into his back, muffling the little boy’s words.

“Quiet,” he hissed, his eyes never leaving the group of boys. They were all braying like donkeys at the outburst. “Fine, you want the board? Keep it. Leave us alone.”

“Who says I want this piece of shit board?” the leader jeered.

Misaki’s eyes widened as the leader raised the skateboard over his head, readying to bring it down hard against one of the cement blocks. It was in that positioning, with the skateboard still held above his head, that the leader suddenly froze on the spot, his features wiped blank and without obvious reason why. The rest of the boys fell silent. The only sound that remained was the drawn-out clack, clack of approaching feet and the gentle shish-shish of a chain jangling against itself. The man on the bench, with the red-hair, was approaching them with an unconcerned look on his face.

“Minoru,” Misaki whispered, “When I tell you to go, you run back to Miss Tegui’s, don’t stop and don’t look back.”

“What about you?” Minoru whimpered.

Misaki grit his teeth and hoped he was only half-lying as he promised, “I’ll be right behind you.”

The redhaired older man took a drawl from his cigarette and stopped between the group of boys and the two brothers as though a referee. Misaki wondered who’s side he would rule in favor of, but if Misaki’s past experiences could be any indication, he just hoped Minoru ran fast and he could take the beating long enough for his brother to get away.

“…pisses me off,” the older man muttered, as smoke billowed out from his lips. He cocked his head towards the pack of street thugs, staring at them sidelong, and flicked his cigarette away. Misaki’s breath hitched, this was it, moment of truth. “Nice thing to watch, and you, assholes, went and interrupted. Ruined the mood. It _pisses _me off.”

The leader of the green bandana boys lowered Misaki’s skateboard, holding it in front of himself like a shield. The others were shifting anxiously, whispering amongst themselves.

“Shit…it’s Suoh Mikoto,” one of them said frantically, as another whined, “We’re screwed…we’re so screwed…” and yet another excitedly explained, “…they say he took out an entire gang by himself last summer…”

“You can leave on your own or…” the redhaired man, Suoh Mikoto it seemed his name was, flexed his hands, balled them into fists and smirked at the quivering bandana boys. He looked like he might be hoping they didn’t leave on their own, “Your choice.”

“We’re leaving, we’re going!” they cried, hurrying to turn and scurry away, “It was just a joke! We weren’t really going to do anything…just messing around.”

Suoh caught hold of the leader by his elbow. The boy yelped out, swinging a fist around wildly in fear, and the redhaired man caught it with ease, twisted the arm and pinned the frantic boy in place. Misaki tightened his hold on Minoru, trying to focus on breathing. This Suoh Mikoto was maybe in his late twenties, and his features held his age well. It was putting it mild to call him attractive, especially given the display he’d just put on. Misaki’s heart was racing in his chest, his face flush with exhilaration. He couldn’t help the breathless, “wow,” that escaped his lips.

“You’re forgetting something,” Suoh said, and looked pointedly at the skateboard still grasped in the green bandana leader’s hand.

The boy thrust it towards Suoh and stammered out, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Take it, please!”

Suoh let him go and he tripped over himself in his hurry to escape, face planting on the cement. He crawled his way back to his feet and scampered off, tail firmly held between his legs. Suoh placed a new cigarette on his lip and held the board out to Misaki. Hesitantly, Misaki took the board, his eyes turned up to stare at Suoh in confused awe. Who was this person and why did he go out of his way for them?

“Your kid brother is right. You’re good at it,” Suoh said, giving Misaki a light smile that warmed through his entire body.

“Th-thanks,” Misaki hugged the board to himself, his eyes lingering on the older man as Suoh turned and sauntered away down the street. Between the new job and being rescued by a handsome older guy that didn’t turn out to be a pervert, Misaki was beginning to wonder if maybe his luck was turning around.

“You see, Misaki, Eiichi kept us safe! I told you he’d be our house spirit,” Minoru declared, shaking Misaki’s attention from their departing savior. Misaki was caught by surprise, and he allowed a small, almost nervous, chuckle to escape his lips. He turned and placed a hand on his little brother’s head.

“Yeah, yeah, you were right, Minoru, Eiichi did keep us safe. Let’s head back for dinner, okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know that I've mentioned this, but I actually like writing sibling relationship stuff more than romantic relationship stuff. I also can't wait to write the parts where Fushimi and Minoru interact.
> 
> Annnnd....of course, Mikoto is Misaki's first crush, even if he doesn't really understand that it's a crush. More on that later, because this will, obviously, not be the last we see of Mikoto. Since the Yatas will be moving to the area and frequenting this park soon...
> 
> Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts.


	9. Chapter 9

For the next few days, Misaki walked with a slight limp. The bruises and scrapes, coupled with the swelling in his hand and gashes on his forearm from when he broke through the community center window made him look like a walking disaster. Miss Tegui noted the injuries but said nothing when the brothers came back from the park.

Misaki silently berated himself through dinner. He’d been reckless and stupid, skateboarding the way that he had, for a moment he’d let himself forget his responsibilities, a mistake he couldn’t afford to make. If he’d been seriously injured or worse, Megumi and Minoru would be the ones to suffer for his stupidity. He was their big brother and they needed him. Goofing off, playing around, skateboarding and video games, he thought briefly about their hero that night, flustered and shoved the thought aside without fully understanding it. These weren’t things he could have or let himself be distracted by. It was the sacrifice he chose to keep what was left of his family together.

Mrs. Atsuji eyed Misaki curiously at lunch on the last day of his first week. He sat hunched over a pad of paper jotting down numbers, his cute bento growing stale beside him. For her part, she asked for no explanation of Misaki’s numerous injuries beyond a remark that he should “be mindful of his body’s needs and his responsibilities to the Fushimi household”. As if he needed a reminder that getting hurt in any way that put him out of commission for longer than a minute would cost him the job, the money, and the only chance he had left of surviving with his dignity intact.

“My, you’re hard at work on something,” Mrs. Atsuji noticed, leaning forward on her knees.

“It’s nothing,” Misaki tapped his pencil against the paper and frowned, “I’ve been looking for a place me and the kids can move into, we can’t live with Miss Tegui forever, but I gotta figure out how much money we’ve got before I can start looking at places.”

Making a budget had been Miss Tegui’s suggestion. It would be better if he knew he could cover the rent at a place with his current salary rather than stress every month about it. Misaki spent the better part of the past two nights trying to figure out how a budget even worked. It definitely didn’t help that he was terrible at mathematics before dropping out of school and he had few chances after to improve upon those skills. His only experience with money handling was waiting tables. The grocery store owner never even let him touch the register.

“I have some experience with managing a household’s income, if you want, I can take a look,” Mrs. Atsuji said. She’d been warming up to him over their time training together. He’d proved to be the hard worker he promised, and he earned bonus points bringing her a small, cute bento in the middle of the week, using excess from his and the children’s lunches. It hadn’t been much, about a snack size, but she’d spent the entire day gushing over it.

“Oh…yeah, sure,” Misaki handed over the paper and hugged his knees to his chest while she looked over his scribbles, humming to herself.

After several tens of seconds past, she peered up at Misaki with a stern look, “Your handwriting is terrible.”

“Y-yeah, so?” Misaki flustered, “Why does it matter how good my handwriting is if I’m the only one that has to read it?”

“I suppose that would be true. So, what does this say?” Mrs. Atsuji pointed to a line of scribbles and hatches on the paper. Misaki squinted at it, tipped his head to one side, tried to remember when he made those marks and what he was thinking at the time, and eventually frowned, dropping his head between his shoulders.

“I don’t know. I can’t read it,” he admitted. He was startled when Mrs. Atsuji laughed.

“Here, let’s start over,” she said, taking the pen from his hand and jotting down his income, “We’ll go through your expenses one at a time.”

“Expenses?” Misaki wrinkled his nose. He was vaguely familiar with the word.

“This is clearly going to take a while,” she lamented. For the rest of their lunch break, Mrs. Atsuji helped lay out Misaki’s budget on the paper. He was impressed at how easily she performed the calculations, and how she seemed to know what needed to be written down.

“Why do you need the amount I spend on the kids’ school stuff?” he wondered, voicing the same question for nearly every expense she asked about. She tapped the paper impatiently while explaining.

“You need to account for all of your money. Not just the bills, but where every one-yen goes.”

When they were done, Mrs. Atsuji looked the notes over, and circled a number at the bottom of the page.

“That’s what you’ve got left at the end of the month for rent and utilities,” she told him, handing it back. She sighed, and said earnestly, “It’s not much, and it doesn’t seem like you have any wiggle room on your other expenses either. If you’re being honest with these numbers, and I suspect you are, you’re a surprising frugal young man. What part of town are you thinking of living in?”

“The one I can afford,” Misaki murmured, looking over the notes, and distractedly telling her, “Thanks for this. I’ll let you know how the apartment search goes.”

They finished out the day’s chores and Misaki returned to Miss Tegui’s empty home. The old woman had left to pick up Minoru and Megumi from school, because they were still enrolled on the other side of town. Misaki took a quick bath and began dinner. He didn’t hear the door open, though he heard Megumi’s shout, “We’re back!”

“Welcome back. I’m in the kitchen,” Misaki called in return. He swiped some vegetables he’d been chopping off the cutting board and into a frying pan on the stove. Megumi halted in the kitchen doorframe; she knew she wasn’t allowed in while anyone was cooking. She pouted at him and he valiantly ignored her obvious attempts at attention. “Get started on your homework, monster.”

“But Misa_ki_,” she whined.

Miss Tegui appeared behind the little girl having her meltdown, “Why are you cooking, Yata? You’ve been hard at work all day and the most I’ve done is read the newspaper. Let me handle that.”

“No way. It’s not a big deal, really. It relaxes me,” Misaki waved her away.

“If you’re sure,” Miss Tegui eyed him skeptically, while placing her hands upon Megumi’s shoulders and steering her from the kitchen, “I’ll get the children set up on their classwork.”

Another hour later, Misaki plated their dinner and set the table. Megumi and Miss Tegui came when he called them to food.

“Where’s Minoru?” he asked, as they settled at the table.

“Outside, playing with his bug,” Megumi answered, wrinkling her nose in disgust. She refused to go within five feet of Minoru’s pet beetle, Eiichi, despite his insistence that it was their house guardian and would protect her. It didn’t help that he thought it was funny to torment Megumi with said ‘house guardian’, taking the beetle out of its shelter and letting it crawl all over him while he called her over, and chasing her around the house with it.

“Right. I’ll go get him,” Misaki muttered, standing from the table and heading outside.

As expected, he found Minoru laying belly down on the porch, watching Eiichi crawl around in his enclosure. Minoru was wrapped up in one of Misaki’s old sweaters, which made the chill that raced up Misaki’s bare arms all the more noticeable.

“Don’t you come for dinner anymore?”

Minoru lowered his face, keeping his eyes averted from his older brother, “I’m not hungry.”

“What? Since when? Did you snack on something at school?” Misaki demanded, squatting down in an attempt to catch Minoru’s gaze when he noticed the discoloration.

Misaki’s hand snapped out, grabbing Minoru by the chin and lifting his little face up. The immediate area around Minoru’s right eye was a deep purple that faded out into a sickly green around the edges. He could barely open it. There was a scrape on his chin, and a cut on his forehead.

“What the hell, Minoru? What happened?” Misaki cried. Minoru pushed his hand away, sitting up and grabbing his beetle’s enclosure, hugging it to his body.

“Nothing happened! Shut up!” Minoru screamed in return.

“Nothing? Then why does your face look like that, huh? Don’t lie. You got in another fight at school. Why are you always getting in fights at school?”

“You’re so loud,” Minoru stood up so that he could look down on his older brother, “You’re always yelling. Won’t you ever just shut up! It’s none of your business. Go back to ignoring me, you’re better at that.”

Minoru stormed into the house, leaving Misaki outside in the cold. His shoulders trembled, but not from the breeze tracing its icy tendrils along every inch of his exposed skin. He could barely feel the chill through the white hot of his own anger and frustration. He slammed his fist against the wooden floor, regretting it the moment his hand connected as the swelling had only just started to go down from when he broke the window at the community center. The grain managed to split his knuckles, and blood bubbled up to fill the gaping injury.

“Dammit,” he seethed, before yelling out at the top of his lungs, his words echoing through the quiet neighborhood, “God dammit!”

It was several minutes later when Misaki reentered the house, Megumi watched him with wide eyes and a pale face. Miss Tegui did her best to avoid looking at him, attempting to call Megumi’s attention back to the dinner in front of her. Misaki ignored the both of them, stalking into the bathroom to wash the blood from his hand and seal it with a bandage from the first aid kit under the sink. He joined the ladies at the table, put some food in his bowl of rice, and poked at it with his chopsticks. He didn’t bother asking where Minoru went, most likely hiding in the storage closet at the back of the house, it was his new favorite place to avoid Misaki.

“I seem to recall you getting in a few fights when you were in school,” Miss Tegui finally broke the silence. Misaki flinched.

“That’s different,” he told her sharply.

She raised a brow at him, helping to shovel some pieces of pork into Megumi’s bowl, “Oh? How so?”

He didn’t answer, stabbing at the food in his own bowl with no intent on picking anything up to eat. It was different because he was the big brother. Minoru was his little brother. Nobody was allowed to leave marks like that on his little brother. He took a deep breath and a bite of rice.

“I think tomorrow I’m going to transfer the kids to a school in this area. That way, maybe they can start there on Monday. I don’t know where we’ll be living yet, but it’ll be somewhere in this area. It's pointless to keep them in the other school now and this way I can start taking them in the morning. If it’s alright, can I use your address, Miss Tegui?” he said.

Miss Tegui stared at him in thought a moment, but whatever was on her mind, she didn’t voice it. “Did you figure out what your budget is for a place?”

“Yeah,” Misaki frowned at his food, feeling his appetite wane with each passing conversation, as that number Mrs. Atsuji circled flashed into mind, “I’ll start looking tomorrow. There are apartments a few blocks from here, right?”

“I’ll make you a list of places nearby,” Miss Tegui offered, picking out a few steamed vegetables, “That reminds me, we ran into someone today that said they were looking for you. He recognized Megumi as your sister.”

“Huh? Who’s that?” Misaki sat up straighter, trying to gauge from Miss Tegui’s voice how he should react. Most of the people in that area that would recognize Megumi were not people he wanted approaching his little sister without him around.

“I didn’t get a name, but he said you both worked part-time at the same noodle shop?”

“Oh really? One of the waiters, huh? Maybe Riho, we got along alright,” Misaki said, slumping back. He’d taken Megumi with him to the shop a couple times to pick up his wages. The owner always gave her a small noodle bowl and a cookie.

“He said the shop owner had been trying to get ahold of you, but since you’d moved and didn’t leave a forward contact…” she tapped her chopsticks against the bowl, “I didn’t give him any information about where you are, I didn’t know if you’d want me to, but I got the phone number for the owner in case you wanted to call.”

“That’s weird. The owner said I shouldn’t go around the shop for a month, at least. It’s only been a week,” Misaki said.

“What? Why couldn’t you go there for a month? Yata, what did you do?” Miss Tegui gaped at him. He winced, hanging his head between his shoulders. He hadn’t meant to tell her.

“It’s not a big thing. One of the customers was acting weird so I…I…ah…” Misaki ran a hand over the back of his neck, “I might’ve punched him a little.” Before Miss Tegui could set in with a lecture though, he perked up and exclaimed. “I wasn’t wrong, though! The owner even sympathized with me. He didn’t fire me for it, just said to lay low for a bit until everything calmed down. I wonder what he wants to talk to me about. I’ll give him a call after dinner. Is it alright for me to use your phone?”

“Of course,” Miss Tegui found the slip of paper with the contact information from her pocket and slid it across the table. “I’ll take care of the dishes and getting the little ones in the bath, alright? Just relax for the rest of the night.”

“Sure. I guess that would be easier than fighting with Minoru all night,” Misaki muttered, grabbing the bowl he’d brought out for Minoru and shoveling some food into it, adding extras from the parts of their meal he knew were Minoru’s favorites, “Would you take this to him, also? He won’t eat it if I give it to him, but maybe if it comes from you? Everything I do just makes things worse.”

“Don’t take it to heart. It’s hard for him to get along with you. You’re both too much alike,” Miss Tegui said, taking the bowl from Misaki. His face scrunched up in disbelief.

“Are you kidding? We’re nothing alike. He’s just a brat all the time with no consideration for anyone else,” Misaki complained as Megumi crawled into his lap and snuggled back against his chest. He draped his arms over her in a kind of hug while eating around her.

“Certainly, sounds like someone I know from a few years ago,” Miss Tegui teased, standing to clear the table.

“How was your day, monster?” Misaki said to his little sister.

“We made paintings today in school. I painted a dinosaur with bat wings,” Megumi answered.

“You mean a dragon?” Misaki questioned, confused why she didn’t just say that.

“No! A _dinosaur_ with _bat wings_,” Megumi insisted, “I want to put him up with mommy and daddy, so they can see.”

Misaki pushed the hair back from her forehead and brushed a kiss to her temple, ignoring the pang in his chest. He hadn’t been able to pull their parents’ photo out yet, there wasn’t any place to set it up at Miss Tegui’s, so it remained tucked in the bottom of their duffle bag. Not to mention, he needed to get it a new frame, since the old one was cracked.

“I think mom and dad would like that. We’ll do that first thing when we get a new place. Deal?”

Megumi grinned up at him, “Deal.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took so long. I had wanted to get another chapter written before posting, because I like a good buffer, but between the holidays, personal stuff, and another story that wanted my attention...ah, well. I hope everyone had a good holiday, here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

Miss Tegui took the children for a bath to give Misaki privacy as he made his phone call. He sat in the kitchen, where Miss Tegui had her phone hooked up, it was an old-style landline. He sat on a stool at the counter, twirling the cord around his finger, listening to the phone ring on the other end. It took five rings before someone picked up.

“Hello, Wakada Noodle,” greeted an unfamiliar voice.

“He-hi, ah…this is Yata Misaki, I work part-time there. I got a message that the owner wanted to speak to me?” Yata said.

“Oh…okay. Gimme a sec,” the voice said. There was some scuffling as the phone was set down, and Misaki could hear the person yelling, “Hey boss, someone on the line for you.”

From the quiet in the background, they seemed slow for a Friday night, but Misaki didn’t think much about it. It was a couple minutes before the phone was picked up again, and the noodle shop owner’s voice spoke. He sounded out of breath, “Hello? Yata?”

“Hey, boss,” Misaki dropped the cord and leaned his chin in his hand, “My friend said you wanted to talk to me?”

“Yeah. Yes. I…ah…I was wondering, would you be able to come in, work some dinner shifts at the restaurant,” the owner said.

Misaki nearly dropped the phone in surprise. The last time they spoke, he’d been worried the man would fire him, and, thankfully, had been offered a month’s suspension instead. This was not the turn of events he was expecting. He didn’t want to get his hopes to high, but it didn’t help that the number Mrs. Atsuji circled on his budget was burned into the back of his mind. He needed more income if he was ever going to lessen his family’s burden on Miss Tegui.

“I don’t know,” Misaki squirmed in his chair, “I just started this new job and…and dinner shift is tough. I’ve got my siblings to look after at night…it didn’t go that well the last time I tried…and I thought you wanted to cool things down before I came back.”

“Please, Yata, I’ll give you an extra five hundred a night on top of your tips,” the owner pleaded. Misaki wrinkled his brow in confusion, as tempting an offer as it was, it was also a strange change of tune from the owner. The other waiters always claimed that a lot more customers came in when Misaki was there, but the change in business couldn’t have been so drastic, otherwise, the owner would’ve offered him full-time long ago.

“What’s that about?” Misaki asked, sitting up in his chair, “Last time we talked, you didn’t want me around anytime soon. Now you’re offering me a raise?”

The owner sighed, and Misaki could feel the other man’s discomfort through the phone, “It’s that Yakuza’s son. He keeps causing problems. Harassing our staff, letting his guys trash the place, they’re driving off customers. I can’t ban him or do anything else against him or his father will see it as disrespect against their family and retaliate. I’ll lose my restaurant.”

“That really sucks,” Misaki said, his hand curling into a fist at his side. It wasn’t right that the noodle shop was facing so much punishment, undoubtedly for the stupid thing he did. “I don’t get what that’s got to do with me working dinner shifts, though. I mean, wouldn’t it be better if I wasn’t there, since I’m the one that pissed him off in the first place? I gotta be the last person he wants to see.”

“That’s the thing, he keeps asking for you when he comes in. It’s only that you’re not here, he starts causing problems. I told him you’d be back in a month and that I didn’t know how to contact you, but he isn’t accepting that. He’s taken some kind of liking to you. He says he wants you to be his personal server at the restaurant,” the owner explained.

Misaki’s stomach dropped beneath him and his throat felt thick, as though lined with cotton. He could still feel that man’s tongue across the back of his neck, that man’s fingers yanking at his hair, that man’s cock hard against his backside. He didn’t know that he could go back to serve that person. Yet, Misaki also couldn’t turn his back on the fact that it was his fault the noodle shop was suffering. There were good people there, they relied on that job. Not to mention, Misaki could use the money.

“Please, Yata, I’m begging you. I’ve lost so much business this week,” the owner said. Misaki shifted in his seat, weighing the options in his head. Were there really that many options?

“I…I don’t…” Misaki chewed his bottom lip, wincing, “When would you need me?”

“He usually comes in Tuesday nights. Sometimes on Wednesday. This past week, it’s been every night, but I think if you pick a shift, he’ll start coming in when you’re here,” the noodle shop owner said, “And you can pick whatever other shifts you want too. And, if there’s food you want to take home at the end of the night, leftovers, I know you always liked taking food home. I can arrange something.”

“Okay,” Misaki whispered, his shoulders trembling at the thought of standing in front of Tatsuo again. Even though he decided not to call and pose for photos, it seemed he was still going to have to put up with that guy.

“Thank you, thank you! Let me know the day, the sooner you come in the better, and I can tell him so he’ll stop making problems for us,” the owner exclaimed, his relief rushing through Misaki like a punch in the gut.

“R-right. I have to sort some things out with my siblings, but I’ll get back to you tomorrow, okay?” Misaki promised.

They exchanged a few more words before Misaki hung up the phone. He went to sit back under the kotatsu, waiting for Miss Tegui to finish up with the children, and still wrestling with how to handle this new turn of events. He could really use the money, but he needed to make arrangements for the little ones. On top of that, his job with the Fushimi Estate posed another problem. Mrs. Atsuji had said the lady of the house didn’t return often, but when she did, she would expect him to prepare her dinner. There would be a definite conflict if she came home on a night that clashed with the noodle shop dinner shift. He couldn’t abandon the shop if that guy was behaving as badly as the owner indicated when Misaki wasn’t there, but he couldn’t risk losing his position at the Fushimi Estate, it was the better paying job.

Everything else aside, there was no getting around that Misaki just didn’t want to serve Tatsuo, let alone breathe the same air as the creep.

Megumi sprinted around the hallway corner and crashed into Misaki, knocking him back onto the floor, as he yelped in surprise. She fell down on top of him, he groaned from her weight, as she grinned with an odd pride in crushing her older brother’s intestines, her wet hair dripping water on his face.

“I’m ready for a bedtime story,” she announced.

“You got to dry your hair first, monster,” Misaki replied, grunting as he repositioned her limbs into less painful and jabbing placements, “I thought Miss Tegui would do that.”

“I don’t want her to dry my hair. I want Misaki to do it,” Megumi whimpered.

Misaki rolled his eyes and picked her up, carrying her back to the bathroom.

“I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t even sit still for the bath. No matter how I try, this old woman doesn’t measure up to the big brother,” Miss Tegui saig d when Misaki and Megumi approached. She was busy gathering the children's dirty laundry off the floor.

It’s fine, I’m done with my phone call, I can handle it,” Misaki said.

Beside Miss Tegui, Minoru was tugging on a clean shirt. The moment he spotted his brother, he rushed from the room, sprinting down the hall, and disappearing into the storage closet. Misaki sighed, and Miss Tegui offered him a knowing smile. She squeezed his arm in passing, hobbling into the living room with the laundry under her arm, and the empty bowl she’d brought back for Minoru in her other hand. Misaki set Megumi down on a stool in the bathroom, and found the hair dryer.

“I’m not supposed to tell you something,” Megumi announced.

Misaki frowned at her, “Oh, okay. What aren’t you supposed to tell me?”

“Misaki,” Megumi cried in exasperation, “I’m not supposed to tell you!”

“I see,” Misaki sighed, plugging the dryer in and turning it on, he absently waved it around as he worked at drying Megumi’s hair. She squirmed in her chair, and turned to face him. He pushed her back around again, and she wriggled free of him, and looked up at him once more, eyes wide and lips twitching, as though she were trying to hold a caterpillar between her teeth. He turned the dryer off, “Stop that. You wanted me to dry your hair, well, I can’t do that by blowing hot air in your face.”

“It’s a secret. Minoru made me keep it,” Megumi said. She was still on about that thing she wasn’t supposed to tell Misaki, and it was clear that she wanted to tell him.

“Megumi,” Misaki knelt down to eye-level with her, “If Minoru made you promise to keep something secret, you really should, you know? It’s not nice to tell someone else’s secrets after you promised you wouldn’t.”

“I know,” Megumi pouted at Misaki. He smirked and gave her a sly look.

“But if you’re really having a hard time keeping that secret, maybe you ought to give it to me, for safe keeping and I won’t tell Minoru, okay?” he told her, picking loose strands of wet hair off her face and placing them behind her ears. She smiled, her shoulders bunching up around her face, as she nodded enthusiastically.

“Okay!” she leaned forward to whisper loudly in Misaki’s ear, “At school, there are these boys that Minoru is always playing with, even though he says they aren’t playing. That it’s grown up stuff and I wouldn’t understand. But today, they were saying mean things on the playground, at lunch, about how our parents are dead and our big brother,” she paused, and gave Misaki a meaningful look, “That’s you, by the way...they said our big brother got us evicted out of our apartment for being a bad person. So now we’re homeless orphans.”

Misaki tried to focus on breathing as she spoke, his hands tightening into fists at his sides. Megumi straightened, looking Misaki in the eye with a matter-of-fact expression.

“Minoru got really mad, and he threw dirt at them. So, they hit him a lot.” Her face scrunched and she asked, “Are we homeless, Misaki? What’s that mean? And, also, what’s an orphan?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll explain it to you later.”

Misaki turned Megumi around again, and she finally sat still, having spilled her secret, satisfied to let her brother finish drying her hair. He followed her back into the living room where Miss Tegui was reading a book at the kotatsu. Misaki took a seat across from the old woman, and Megumi claimed his lap. Miss Tegui eyed him over the cover of her book.

“Are you going to make me ask...?” she said, flipping over to the next page and pretending to read.

“No. I need to talk to you about it anyway,” Misaki said. “The noodle shop owner wants me to come back and work dinner shifts. At least one a week. It would be right after I got off from the Fushimi Estate. The money would be a lot of help. I always make good tips there, and the owner is offering to pay me extra on my wages.”

Miss Tegui raised her brow at that, her lips pressing into a thin line, “I thought you had a falling out with one of the customers there.”

“I did.”

Misaki finger combed Megumi’s hair as he spoke, parting it down the middle and starting to braid one side. Miss Tegui had taught him how to do it when Megumi started throwing temper tantrums over him keeping her hair short like a boy. She wanted long hair, like her teacher at school, but Misaki knew nothing about caring for long hair or styling it the way girls did. Once a week, for a month, Misaki would take the children over to Miss Tegui’s where she’d sit him down and spend the day showing him how to twist and knot Megumi’s hair into cute looks. Braiding had been one of the harder things to learn, but now there was something about it that relaxed him.

“Isn’t it odd, given that he suspended you for a month, that he’s turned around, offering to increase your pay to entice you back?” Miss Tegui persisted. She put her book down and glared at Misaki. He shrugged.

“It turns out I’m more popular than he thought,” Misaki returned her stare, “It’s waiting tables. There’s nothing to worry about, I promise.”

Miss Tegui studied him for a few more seconds, before picking her book up and returning to the page she left off on. “I can watch the children while you work. If that’s what you’re asking. It’s perfect timing really, since you’ll be moving back to the area, right?”

“I’ll return the favor. If you make a list of things you need done around the house, I’ll take care of it for you,” Yata told her.

“Won’t you tire yourself out? You’re doing that full-time already at the Fushimi place. Tell you what, if you want to repay me, once a week, bring the children over for dinner, and cook us something, okay?” Miss Tegui said.

“That’s all you want? That’s weird,” Misaki shrugged, starting to braid the other side of Megumi’s hair, “Still, let me know when you need things done around the house, too. I don’t ever get tired! It’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Oh no? I suppose you weren’t tired in the least the day you showed up here and blacked out for three hours on my floor. You didn’t even notice this one bouncing all over you,” Miss Tegui teased, gesturing at Megumi when she said ‘this one’. She stood up from the table, “I’ll turn in to my room for the night, let you put the littles ones down to bed.”

“I think Minoru might be planning on sleeping in that storage closet,” Misaki noted. He wasn’t looking forward to the argument he knew he’d have with the little boy in attempt to get him out.

“It should be fine, so long as he doesn’t trap the spiders in there and turn them into pets, too,” Miss Tegui said lazily over her shoulder, as she limped towards the back of the house.

“Wait a minute,” Misaki paled, “There aren’t really spiders in that closet, are there?”

Miss Tegui waved over her shoulder, shuffling out of sight as she called, “Good night, children.”

Misaki finished with Megumi’s hair and nudged her from his lap.

“I need to get your brother. Figure out what story you want for bed,” he told her. She grabbed his hand before he could climb to his feet.

“You aren’t going to tell Minoru the secret, right? You promised,” she said.

“Of course, I won't,” he assured her. He tried to untangle her hold on his hand, but she tugged again, her eyes pleading. He sighed, and insisted, “I promised, didn’t I, and when have I ever broken a promise to you?”

“They were liars, right? You’re not a bad person,” she whispered.

Misaki hesitated, not sure how to answer. He knew what he should say, but he couldn’t make the words come out. He forced a smile instead and replied, “You tell me.”

“I didn’t think so,” Megumi said, letting his hand go. Misaki stood, running a hand over the back of his neck and heading down the hall. He wanted to put the whole conversation behind him, but he had a sinking feeling it would be keeping him up all night.

The storage closet was locked when Misaki tried the knob. There wasn’t an actual lock on the door, so he wondered how Minoru managed to jam it. Misaki figured he could save the lecture for another day, and knocked. No answer. He shifted from one foot to the other, knocked again. Still, no answer.

“Come on, Minoru. I know you’re in there. Open up. It’s time for bed,” Misaki added, “Unless you really want to sleep with the spiders in there. Miss Tegui says they’re big and hairy.”

“Go away,” Minoru answered, kicking the door with a ‘bang’ for good measure.

“Dammit, _don’t do that_,” Misaki hissed, fighting his urge to kick the door in response, “You’ll damage the door and I’ll have to fix it. You can’t sleep in there.”

“I can too. I don’t want to sleep in the same room with you,” Minoru shouted reply.

Misaki slumped, not sure how to argue. From what Megumi had told him, Minoru’s fight at school had been about Misaki’s failure to make rent, leading to their eviction. Someone in the neighborhood saw them getting kicked out, or maybe a parent knew the landlady. It wouldn’t have taken long for the rumors to reach back to Minoru’s school.

“Fine. I’ll sleep somewhere else. Just get out here, and go to bed,” Misaki said.

There was some shuffling inside, and the storage closet door opened a crack. Minoru peeked out, looking up at Misaki suspiciously through his one good eye.

“Where will you sleep?” Minoru inquired in a dubious voice. Misaki folded his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling in thought. There weren’t many options in the house beyond the living room where he and the children already shared, he couldn’t exactly barge into Miss Tegui’s room, that left the bathroom, kitchen, and porch.

“What’s it to you?” Misaki replied, giving up on the decision, “As long as it’s not in the same room as you, right, then what do you care where I end up sleeping?”

“You’re not just lying to get me to come out,” Minoru accused.

“Sheesh, if you feel that strongly about it, I’ll sleep in the bathtub, okay?” Misaki said, putting his hands on his hips and tapping his foot impatiently. Minoru seemed satisfied by that answer, pushing the door further open and collecting his beetle’s cage. “No, no, no, you’re not taking the bug! Megumi’s already going to have a meltdown when she finds out you won’t let me sleep in the living room…”

Minoru gave Misaki a tearful look, “You’re always giving Megumi what she wants but Eiichi can’t sleep without me, he gets scared too!”

Misaki buried his face in his palm.

“Do these kinds of things even sleep?” Misaki muttered, and sighed, standing and opening the linen closet, “Fine. But we have to put something over the cage, or Megumi will freak out.”

They returned with a towel draped over the beetle’s habitat. Megumi was seated on the floor, three books on the ground around her, picked from Miss Tegui’s collection of children stories that she kept on hand for her grandchildren. Misaki frowned at her.

“I told you to pick one,” he said, while Minoru set the beetle up on top of Miss Tegui’s kotatsu, spreading the towel out around it to let air up. He made himself comfortable on the futon under the kotatsu beside the beetle.

“You did not,” Megumi pouted, “Please, Misaki, I can’t choose just one.”

Misaki sighed, plopping on the ground beside her, and helping to tuck her under the kotatsu. He figured there was no use arguing, and he valiantly ignored the ‘I told you so’ look from Minoru, as he picked up the nearest book and started reading.


	11. Chapter 11

The days began to pass quickly for Misaki. He got the little ones switched over to a school nearer Miss Tegui’s house using her address on the admission’s forms. It was a strange relief being able to walk them into school and pick them up again. He appreciated Miss Tegui’s help, but he always felt anxious over the children traveling somewhere without him. He looked at apartments in the area on his days off, but there wasn’t anything he could afford with the budget Mrs. Atsuji helped him create. He decided to wait until working his first dinner shift at the noodle shop to see how much money he brought in. He’d told the owner he would work Friday night; it was easiest because he could stay until closing and not worry about being at the Fushimi Estate in the morning. He also wanted to put off having to see the Tatsuo guy for as long as he could.

When Misaki explained to his brother and sister that they were switching schools, neither took it well. Megumi really liked her teacher, and she had a couple friends: one that drew really well, and one that always let Megumi play with her stuffed unicorn during lunch. She cried the rest of the night, and promptly forgot by morning when Misaki took her to the park to feed the goldfish. As for Minoru, he pitched a fit about having to learn the rules of a new playground and having to make new friends, although Misaki was fairly certain Minoru didn’t have any friends at their current school. It was more that Minoru already knew who to avoid in the halls. He gave Misaki the silent treatment until his first day at the new school. After, he admitted it wasn’t the worst place, which Misaki took to mean no fights yet, and ignored anymore questions about it.

Work at the Fushimi Estate was a breeze in the second week. Misaki knew the daily routine and could perform all of the duties on his own. The monthly routines were nothing too tedious or out of the ordinary. After seeing it once, he had it down. He insisted Mrs. Atsuji relax and let him do the work. She still followed him around, talked to him and gave advice. She showed him where the mailbox was that contained their salary, and sure enough, there was an envelope inside for him. He felt elated opening the packet and finding those crisp bills. He had to count them twice to be sure they were real.

On the Wednesday of Misaki’s second week, they had to call the gardener to come fix a broken sprinkler head. Mrs. Atsuji let Misaki make the call and he felt oddly nervous, even though he was just explaining the issue. The gardener said he would be by within the hour.

“That’s quick. I thought he would make an appointment later in the week or something,” Misaki commented.

Mrs. Atsuji chuckled, “I imagine the Fushimi Estate is one of his most important accounts. Anyways, Mrs. Fushimi ensures that all of her employees make her and her interests a top priority.”

“I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” Misaki said.

“Fail to prioritize Mrs. Fushimi’s house and you’ll find out in quick order,” Mrs. Atsuji warned.

Friday came sooner than Misaki would’ve liked. He spent the day nursing a growing dread in the pit of his belly. Mrs. Atsuji brought him hot tea as he was rehanging the heavy curtains after taking them outside to clean. She instructed him to take a seat while she finished with the curtains in a tone that suggested he not argue. He thanked her, watching from the couch as he cradled the warm cup between his hands.

“You’re worked up over something,” she remarked.

“It’s nothing,” Misaki hastily lied, sipping the tea. He knew she was asking because he’d let his emotions effect his work, and she’d told him enough times, whatever his personal problems may be, leave them outside of the house.

“Nothing? You’ve been jumpy all day,” she pointed out.

He shifted in his seat, knowing he needed to tell her something, “Starting tonight, I’m going to be picking up a dinner shift at a restaurant I worked at part-time before but had taken a break from recently. I’m just nervous about it, is all. I never work nights, except once before, because of my brother and sister. It’s hard leaving them alone for any amount of time, but night is the worst. My sister has nightmares and my brother has trouble sleeping, if I’m not there...”

Mrs. Atsuji gave Misaki a pointed look and Misaki squirmed, tightening his grip on the tea cup.

“I know what you’re going to say,” he yelped, “I promise, having a second job won’t get in the way of my work here. This job is more important to me. It’s not really a second job, either…I mean, I get paid and the money’ll really help, but it’s more like a favor to the owner than anything. It won’t interfere with my work here. I promise.”

“See that it doesn’t,” Mrs. Atsuji said, rehanging the last curtain.

By the end of the night, Misaki lingered, asking, “You’re sure there’s nothing else we need to do?”

“You’ve been doing this long enough now to know the answer to that and besides, don’t you have another job to get to tonight,” Mrs. Atsuji scrutinized him, “You’re sure you’re only nervous about leaving the little ones alone with Hisoka and nothing else?”

“Y-yeah…that’s all it is,” Misaki hurried down the courtyard, waving over his shoulder, “I’m leaving first then.”

“Good night,” Mrs. Atsuji called after him.

Misaki barely made it to the noodle shop before his shift started. He went to greet the owner in the back room and collect an apron.

“Tatsuo isn’t in yet,” the owner said.

“Maybe he won’t come in at all,” Misaki said hopefully.

The owner shrugged. “He hasn’t been in all week, since I told him on Monday you would be here tonight.”

Misaki’s heart sank at that revelation. Tatsuo really had been acting out all because he wanted Misaki there to serve him. That meant it was a good chance Tatsuo would be in for dinner.

“When he gets here, I want you to focus on him. Let the others cover the rest of the tables,” said the owner.

Misaki decided to make the most of his time before Tatsuo arrived, managing to overlook how the other waiters avoided him, and whispered behind his back. They all knew why he was there and had been putting up with Tatsuo on his behalf for a week, the least he could do was put on a brave front. He would endure it for them.

Misaki made it through dinners from start to finish for about five customer tables, and was beginning to forget why he was even there in the first place, when Tatsuo walked through the door with two friends and several girls hanging off of them. Tatsuo glanced over the dining area with a lazy expression until he found Misaki. Their eyes locked, Misaki swallowed down his angry feelings over being summoned there for an entitled jerk, and Tatsuo smirked, leading his entourage towards the private rooms. One pointed look from the owner, and Misaki trailed after them.

“Welcome to Wakada Noodle. Can I bring you guys anything to start?” he grumbled, keeping his eyes lowered. The girls were getting themselves comfortably strewn atop the men. They had removed their outerwear to reveal skimpy, barely there dresses underneath.

“They told me your name was Misaki, like that of a cute girl,” Tatsuo said and color flood Misaki’s cheeks. He hated his first name and the only ones that got away with calling him by it were his brother and sister. There was a half-naked woman in Tatsuo’s lap, twirling his hair in her fingers. She gave Misaki a look of pure disdain.

“He doesn’t look like a cute girl, though,” she said.

Good, Misaki thought to himself, hugging his order pad to his chest as though it would protect him from the lecherous stare Tatsuo was giving him. Looking like a cute girl had never been a goal in his life. Despite the obvious attitudes towards Misaki, he felt relieved at the presence of those other people. He felt like Tatsuo might not be as bad with them around, even as he recalled the shattered sake glass in their first encounter.

“It’s Yata. My name is _Yata_. I’ll bring waters for everyone, if you’re still deciding,” Misaki said, spinning on heel and hurrying away before anything more could be said.

He had about a two-minute reprieve before returning to the private room with a tray of waters. He started setting them out on the table, his heart in his throat, and body tense. Tatsuo’s two friends were chatting with the ladies around them, Tatsuo was ignoring the woman in his lap, watching Misaki. Once the cups were all set out, Misaki tucked the tray under his arm.

“Did you decide on something?” Misaki prompted, eyes on the ground again.

“I’ve decided that Yata is not a cute name,” Tatsuo said, rubbing his palm up and down the back of the woman in his lap while leering at Misaki.

“Never said I wanted to be cute,” Misaki muttered, when one of the other women reached out to tug at his sleeve.

“You really shouldn’t argue, you know. Customer is always right, and don’t you know who this is?” she said, indicating Tatsuo, as her sleeve slipped off her shoulder and revealed more of her skin, “You should be calling him Boss, you know.”

“I-I know who he is,” Misaki’s face blistered red, as he stumbled back from the contact and hastily darted his eyes anywhere but that woman. His reaction caught the attention of everyone in that room, all staring at him in stun, before a hearty laugh broke out. The only one not laughing was Tatsuo, he leaned back, a demure smile on his face, utterly pleased with himself.

“Just like that, a single touch from a woman, and he’s blushing that hard,” one of the men howled.

“What a virgin he is,” the women cooed, “Why do you have such an interest in this tiny virgin, Hiro, he’s not cute at all!”

Misaki grit his teeth, holding the tray in front of himself and determining to remain professional, managed to stammer out, “Do you want to hear the specials or just keep looking at the menu?”

The women exchanged looks, then they gathered together to lean on the table so their shirts spilled down, revealing their ample cleavage. They eagerly sang in chorus, “Tell us the specials, not-cute-_Yata_.”

Misaki flustered, his grip tightening on the tray.

“Ah…right…_fine_…okay…well, we have, on special…there’s a soba bowl with shoyu broth comes with two tempura shrimp on top…uhm…then we’ve got…ahh…an oh…”

The women were leaning further forward as he spoke, one licked her bottom lip, and another readjusted her bra around her bosom, a bit of the lace peeking out. Misaki lowered his head and squeezed his eyes shut. The men were snickering behind open palms.

“…the uh, yakisoba plate…comes with option of pork or chicken…is half off…and uh…” Misaki cleared his throat, one of the women leaned back, arms around the other ladies’ waists, she spread her legs a bit so that there was a gap large enough to see…Misaki’s eyes rolled to the ceiling, no undergarments. Of course. He felt breathless and wondered if someone turned the air off in that room and maybe he could excuse himself to go check on the vents, “G-g-gyoza plate...is also on special…”

“That’s enough,” Tatsuo finally spoke, and despite the mews of disappointment from his harem, he waved Misaki away, “Three bottles of warm sake, bring glasses all around.”

It took all of Misaki’s willpower to calmly walk from the room. He took his time putting the order in at the bar, visiting the bathroom to wash his face. He couldn’t figure out Tatsuo’s game. Was he enjoying letting his friends torment Misaki? Did he just like watching Misaki squirm?

When Misaki got back to the room with the sake and glasses, Tatsuo wasn’t in the room. Without their ringleader to entertain, the men and women ignored Misaki, flirting amongst one another as he set the table. He left the room in a hurry, and nearly ran into Tatsuo, stumbling back against the wall to avoid a collision. Tatsuo smirked down at him.

“You never called for a photo session, I was disappointed,” he said, positioning himself so that Misaki was effectively pinned against the wall.

“I never said that I would,” Misaki replied, biting his tongue on the expletive laden reply he really wanted to give. Tatsuo wasn’t offset by the remark. He braced his arm on the wall above Misaki’s head, using it as leverage to lessen the space between them. Misaki shrank as far back as the wall allowed, trying to sink into it.

“You still need the money, don’t you?”

Misaki wasn’t sure how to answer. It would be a flat out lie to say he didn’t need the money; it was a generous amount and he still wasn’t sure how to afford a new place for himself and the little ones. But he didn’t want Tatsuo to know, or the guy would never drop it.

“I got a new job,” Misaki blurted out. It didn’t really answer the question but he hoped Tatsuo might take it as one. It occurred to Misaki that this was maybe the reason Tatsuo had insisted on Misaki coming back to the restaurant, to try and convince him to take those photos again. If Tatsuo realized that Misaki didn’t need the money anymore and wouldn’t take the job, maybe Tatsuo would let it go and leave Misaki alone. Then Misaki could continue to work a few dinner shifts at the restaurant, make enough money to afford a new place for him and his siblings to live, and not have to serve the lecherous jerk.

“I see,” Tatsuo said, his brow wrinkled with the words, “I wondered where you went. You said you worked day shifts, but were never here when I came in then, too.”

“Y-yeah, I was working at my new job,” the words tasted dry and acerbic in Misaki’s mouth, like a draught of poison, as he processed the new revelation that Tatsuo had even come here during day shifts looking for him.

“Why are you here now, then?” Tatsuo asked.

“Because they said you were looking for me and…” the answer was out of Misaki’s mouth before he realized the mistake.

Tatsuo’s smile broadened, as he brought his hand up to cup Misaki’s chin, lifting the younger boy’s face and tracing a thumb across his bottom lip. All of the blood drained from Misaki’s head and limbs. He felt suddenly weak, and the only thing keeping him standing was his more desperate desire to maintain what little space remained between himself and Tatsuo’s body.

“Good,” Tatsuo teased, “As long as you understand how this works.”

Tatsuo released Misaki, sauntering back to the private dining room. Misaki sank to the floor, silently screaming, as his coworkers passed hurriedly by him. He didn’t understand it, he couldn’t figure out what it was this Tatsuo wanted from him. All he really understood was he wouldn’t be escaping the guy anytime soon.

The rest of the dinner service went easy enough, though they stayed for well over two hours. There was some light teasing from the rest of Tatsuo’s party, but Tatsuo seemed satisfied from his encounter with Misaki in the hall. Misaki focused on keeping a cool head whenever he went into the room, taking breaks in between, alternating splashing water in his face in the bathroom, and stepping outside into the frosty autumn air. He wanted to go back to Miss Tegui’s and bathe, scrub every inch of his body, but he didn’t think that would help. He was certain he would still be able to feel Tatsuo’s hand on his face.

It was at the end of the night, when the rest of Tatsuo’s party exited the room and restaurant, and Misaki began clearing the table, Tatsuo came up behind Misaki, slipping an arm around Misaki’s waist, pressing Misaki back against his chest. Tatsuo’s other hand slid into the apron pocket, brushing against parts of Misaki’s body that he would rather Tatsuo’s hand not be near. When Tatsuo spoke, his breath was hot and wet against Misaki’s ear and cheek.

“I’ll see you next Friday, _Misaki_.”

With that, Tatsuo strut from the room. Misaki supported himself against the table. His shoulders trembling, frustrated tears forming, he swiped them away with the back of his hand before they had a chance to fall. He finished clearing the room, and removed his apron. Tatsuo had left a bundle of yen in his pocket and he fought the urge to leave it there, reminding himself he needed the money, for Minoru and Megumi’s sake. He found the owner in the backroom, counting out the register for the night.

“I’m heading out,” Misaki said, biting out his anger, “I’m taking one of the chocolate mousses cakes. Don’t charge me for it.”

Before the owner could respond, Misaki was gone. He grabbed one of the fancy cakes that the restaurant purchased fresh every morning from a nearby French bakery, and slammed out of the restaurant. The chilly outside air attacked his bare skin, he was trembling from the cold in seconds, but knew once he started on the skateboard, he wouldn’t even notice the cold anymore. He was surprised to find the waiter, Riho, out there smoking a cigarette.

“I didn’t even know you were here,” Misaki said.

Riho gave him an awkward shrug, not meeting Misaki’s eyes. Of course, Misaki realized, like all the others, Riho had spent the dinner shift avoiding him.

“Whatever. I’ll see you later,” Misaki muttered, his skateboard slamming against the pavement. He placed a foot atop it, ready to head home, when Riho called to him.

“What do you expect, Yata? Rich, handsome patron has taken a liking to you, shop owner is giving you special treatment because of it, and you still got the nerve to sulk around the restaurant like you got the shortest stick in the draw?” Riho tapped his cigarette against his thigh, the ash scattered on the wind.

“You think I want this kind of attention? I didn’t ask for it! You go in there and serve that jerk if you want it,” Misaki shouted reply.

“He’s not interested in me. He wants you to serve him. Besides all that, no one knows what happened between the two of you when you were alone in that room and what you did to get his forgiveness,” Riho sneered, “Tell me the truth, just you and me, how big is his cock? Was it hard to fit in your mouth? Did you swallow his cum, or just let him cover you in it?”

Misaki nearly dropped the chocolate cake in shock. He let his skateboard out from under his foot, it rolled away a short distance, hitting the neighboring building’s wall and stopping.

“Fuck you,” Misaki flushed from the heat of his own rage, “I didn’t do anything like that!”

“Oh no? Just let him stick it in then, huh? Everyone saw you leave that night, walking funny, and never came back. Took your time healing. Was he your first? I’m surprised it took you this long to learn that an ass like yours could get whatever you wanted if you just bent over for the right person,” Riho said.

“No way did I do that! No way would I ever do that, especially with that asshole,” Misaki grabbed Riho by the collar, hand curling tight around the handles of the bag he’d put the cake in. The crinkle of the package, a reminder of all of his responsibilities, was the only thing that kept him from acting on the violence surging through him.

“What’s the big deal? We all know how much you want money. You’re always talking about it. He likes you and he obviously wants to do terrible things to your body. Let him, and then make him buy you nice things,” Riho continued, his expression perverted by some dark emotion Misaki couldn’t place, “Play him right and you’ll never have to work in a noodle shop again.”

Misaki unfurled his hand from Riho’s collar and pushed Riho back from him. He turned to collect his skateboard. Riho continued to smoke his cigarette, watching Misaki warily.

Wordlessly, Misaki kicked off in the direction of Miss Tegui’s. As the wind whipped around him, heavy thoughts weighed in his mind. It made sense now why everyone was treating him so distantly at the noodle shop, they were all convinced he’d done something disgusting with that Tatsuo. He wondered if the owner thought that, too. Maybe the owner even thought Misaki sent Tatsuo to get him the job back at the noodle shop. It was enough to make him sick. He had to stop halfway and finish out the commute on foot, too dizzy and nauseas to continue skating for fear of falling and hurting himself.

When he arrived at Miss Tegui’s, the lights were all out inside. He was surprised to open the door and find Megumi curled up in the entry way, sitting with her knees drawn to her chest, her head rest against the wall. Misaki sighed, too many emotions overwhelming him at the sight. After removing his shoes, he attempted to pick her up without waking her, but she stirred, her arms and legs wrapping around him.

“Misaki,” she whimpered, “You’re finally home…”

“Yeah, I’m back,” he whispered, “What are you doing up? You’re supposed to be in bed.”

“I was scared, Misaki, you weren’t here and there are monsters,” she buried her face against his neck.

“I know there are,” Misaki took a seat at the kotatsu, hugging her close so she couldn’t see the tears tumbling down his face. He could see Minoru stirring, the little boy’s eyes wide open and watching. Misaki kept his voice steady and firm, “But I’m here now, I won’t let them hurt you. I won’t let anything hurt you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, classes have started for me this week. I've got five 400/600 level courses that are all high concept programming classes. That means that my few and far between updates on this story are about to become fewer and farther between. I have about five chapters pre-written, and if I do run out, I have another K story that I might start uploading that has 15 chapters done -- which I hope will serve as a nice sign of life, at least. Good luck to anyone else that is back in school, and to those of you who are half-way through your school year.
> 
> Let me know what you thought of the chapter! I keep forgetting to mention, despite what these chapters suggest, Tatsuo is not in the story for very long. He does set up some early conflicts though. Also, next chapter, intro of a couple more HOMRA cast. Thank you for reading, see you next time!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, I've had the roughest two weeks and recently made the decision that I am dropping one of my classes (the whole class was a group project, four people in the group that couldn't get their shit together, I'm forced to be organizer and leader, wrote most of our first document that we turned in, and, yeah, wasn't going to do a whole semester of that). Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy!

In the morning, Miss Tegui came out of her room just as the sun was rising, finding Misaki in the kitchen simultaneously working on breakfast and packing a large picnic bento for four.

“Weren’t you home late? I didn’t expect you to be up this early,” she greeted, maneuvering around him for the pot of coffee Misaki had left on the stove. “You need sleep, you know?”

“I’m fine, I promise. There were just some things I wanted to do today,” Misaki told her with a reassuring smile.

“What are you up to?” Miss Tegui peered into the bento box curiously.

Misaki smirked and shrugged, “It’s for Minoru’s birthday. I figured we could go do a day at the park. I can’t afford to get him a skateboard, but I can let him play around on mine. I got a cake from the restaurant last night, it’s big enough for him and Megumi to split.”

“Spending the day with their big brother. I think the little ones will like that,” Miss Tegui gave Misaki’s shoulder a squeeze, “Leave this old lady some leftovers, if you have any.”

“Wait, what? Aren’t you coming?” Misaki watched Miss Tegui shuffling towards the living room. She paused in the kitchen door, smiling at him with a twinkle in her eye.

“I appreciate the invite, and I hate to miss out, but no, I think it would be best if I stayed behind,” Miss Tegui sipped her coffee.

“I guess you could use the break, huh? I’m sorry we’ve been here so long, imposing on you all this time,” Misaki sheepishly ran a hand over the back of his head, ruffling his hair.

“Oh, hush, you know that’s not it,” Miss Tegui swatted at him, “I just know they’d really like having a day with you to themselves. They miss you, you know, and so much has happened. They got used to it being the three of you. Megumi cries when you’re not here to do things for her, anyone else isn’t good enough, and Minoru spends all of his time on the porch with that beetle.”

“I’m sorry they’re causing you a lot of trouble. I don’t know what’s gotten into them lately. They always liked coming over and staying with you before,” Misaki told her.

“Spare me. I raised seven children and eighteen grandchildren. Your siblings are no trouble for me, I assure you,” Miss Tegui took another sip of her coffee, “I only mean that if your aim is to spoil them for Minoru’s birthday, this is the way to do it. Spend the day with them, they’ll be very happy for it.”

“Ah, alright. If you’re certain. I’ll pack a separate box for you,” Misaki conceded.

When Misaki served breakfast and announced the plans for that day, Megumi was excited but Minoru seemed unconvinced. He picked at the food on his plate and remained silent as Megumi talked about wanting to feed the fish and build a castle in the sand box.

“We can do something else, if you want,” Misaki said to Minoru, shoveling some food onto a plate for Megumi while watching his little brother.

“I don’t care,” Minoru muttered, eating his food, not looking at anyone else at the table. The black around his eye had healed for the most part, settling on a brown-green. He could open it fully too. The cut on his head left a good scar, and Misaki wasn’t sure it would ever heal completely. Since transferring to the local school, Minoru hadn’t come back with any new injuries, but his mood had changed. Like Miss Tegui had said, Minoru spent all of his time at home in the backyard with his beetle.

Misaki sighed. He didn’t know what else to say or do. He decided he’d make the most of it, focus on giving them a fun day. After clearing the table and a brief debate with Miss Tegui over who would do the dishes, Misaki relented to her insistence she do them. He bundled Megumi and Minoru up in their warmer weather clothes and asked Minoru about taking the insect book.

“I bet there are all kinds of bugs out there at the park. You might find Eiichi a little brother,” Misaki said.

Minoru rolled his eyes, “It’s too cold for that.”

“Ah…okay. I guess you’d know better than me,” Misaki grinned.

Blank faced, Minoru turned and exited the house. Misaki knelt to let Megumi climb onto his shoulders, and snatched up his skateboard. He took the picnic lunch from Miss Tegui, standing by to see the siblings off. She offered him an encouraging smile.

There weren’t many people at the park when they arrived. A woman with two toddlers, and a handful of teenagers. Misaki thought briefly of the redhaired man from the night that he’d come there with Minoru. It wasn’t likely that guy would show up, Misaki decided, probably worked in the area and only stopped by for a smoke when his shift ended. A bit of heat touched Misaki’s cheeks, and he shook his head. Why was he thinking about that guy, anyways?

Minoru paused at the edge of the park and stared at the teenagers. Misaki smirked at him.

“If you see someone you know, go say hi,” he said.

“I don’t know any of them,” Minoru took the skateboard from Misaki and went over to the area they’d skated in last time. Misaki frowned at his brother’s retreating back.

“You making any friends at the new school, monster?” Misaki said, giving Megumi a tiny bounce. She giggled and tightened her hold around his neck.

“There’s a boy who sits at my table. He picks his nose and puts the boogers on his chair,” she answered. Misaki wrinkled his nose.

“Oh yeah? Maybe don’t make friends with that kind of guy,” Misaki knelt to put her down on the ground, “Come on, you wanted to build a castle in the sandbox, right?”

“Yes!” Megumi exclaimed, hurrying ahead of Misaki towards the aforementioned spot. He got her set up in the sand, helping her build a mound, while sending glances worriedly over his shoulder to where Minoru was put-put-ing himself around the sidewalk on the skateboard.

“Hey Megumi, what about Minoru? He tell you about any friends?” Misaki asked.

Megumi shrugged and lamented comically, “That kid doesn’t tell me anything.”

“Taking old lady lessons from Miss Tegui, huh?” Misaki clapped his hands together to knock the sand clean. He looked over at the toddlers playing nearby, their mother on the bench reading a book. “Stay here for a minute, okay. I’m going to check on your brother.”

Megumi pouted at him and he ruffled her hair.

“I’ll be just right over there. If anyone comes over and bothers you, scream as loud as you can,” he told her.

Misaki stood in front of Minoru’s path on the skateboard with hands on his hips, forcing the younger boy to come to a stop. Misaki worked his mouth into a smile, uncertainty tugging at the corners.

“You’re doing really well getting around on the board. You actually look like you might know what you’re doing,” Misaki beamed. Minoru kicked the board towards Misaki and Misaki stopped it, flipping it up into his hand and frowning, “This isn’t fair, Minoru. I don’t even know what you’re mad at me about this time.”

Minoru shoved his hands into his pockets and wandered to a bench, taking a seat. After a few seconds and a glance back to make sure Megumi was alright, Misaki took a seat on the bench beside Minoru, holding his skateboard between his thighs.

“Listen, Minoru, I know that things haven’t been great. I’ve messed up a lot lately and I haven’t been around. I wasn’t there when you needed me, and I’ve relied on Miss Tegui to take care of you and Megumi. I know you didn’t want to change schools and it sucks sleeping on the floor in Miss Tegui’s place but…but…” Misaki sighed, “I just need to get settled into this housekeeping job, and if I can keep up the part-time job at the noodle shop, I’ll have enough money to get us a new place soon.”

“I’m not mad about that,” Minoru muttered, hugging his arms in his lap.

“Okay…then what are you mad about? Coming to the park? I told you if you didn’t want to come to the park…”

“That’s not what I’m mad about, either,” Minoru cried, kicking at the sidewalk, “I never even said I was mad.”

“Then why are you acting like someone killed your pet bug?” Misaki demanded.

“Ugh, _go away_, Misaki! You don’t understand anything,” Minoru said.

“How can I understand anything when you’re not telling me anything?” Misaki shot back.

“Yata,” came a quiet voice.

Misaki and Minoru both faltered in their argument just as things were getting heated. They both turned to look at the pale, dainty girl in a poufy red dress that was over-the-top with lace and frills, a regular lolicon, standing beside their bench. Her hands were neatly clasped in front of her, her eyes were alight on Minoru. Her features were eerily expressionless.

“Uh…” Misaki looked between the girl and his brother, “Minoru, do you know this girl?”

“A-a-a-a…” Minoru stammered; a beet red blush sprawled across his face, his eyes had become large and round.

It was at that moment, a willowy man appeared, jogging up the sidewalk and slowing to a stop behind the red-dress girl. He also had light colored hair, and was carrying a video recorder under his arm.

“Anna, why did you run off so suddenly?” the man said, breathless. He perked at the sight of the Yata brothers gaping at the two of them, “Oh! I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to startle anyone. Anna, do you know these boys? Is that why you took off?”

The girl turned her face up to the man, her expression remained impassive, as she pointed at Minoru and quietly explained, “Yata.”

“Oh, I see. That explains it,” the man laughed.

“How does that explain anything?” Misaki demanded, glaring at these two strange people, wondering if he should collect his siblings and quietly vacate the area. He darted a nervous look to Megumi to make sure she was still happily building castles in the sand.

“Yata Minoru, correct?” the man gestured at Minoru, and then placed his hands on the girl’s shoulders, and smiled broadly at Misaki, “This is Anna Kushina, they go to school together. Anna was telling me about him the other day. Minoru just changed schools, right? Anna told me he always looks lonely.”

“I-I do not!” Minoru yelled, hopping to his feet. Anna peered curiously at him and he blanched, his eyes dropping to the ground as though defeated.

“Ah…no?” the willowy man placed a finger to his lips and tilted his head to one side, smiling down at Minoru, “But you did look kind of lonely just a moment ago.”

“Excuse me, but who the hell are you?” Misaki was on his feet now, standing in front of his brother. Even if the girl was Minoru’s classmate, that didn’t excuse the guy’s weird attitude. The man’s smile never slipped, as he waved his hands in front of himself.

“Forgive me, I’m being rude, aren’t I? I’m Totsuka Tatara. I look after Anna,” the man explained, bowing slightly at the waist, “May I ask your name, too?”

“Ulp…” Misaki took a step back, startled by the change of conversation, he cleared his throat and straightened, “Sure. I’m Yata…” He trailed off, shifting uncomfortably as he barely whispered his first name, “Misaki,” then in a louder voice, “I prefer Yata!”

“Of course! Yata it is,” Totsuka eagerly agreed, his brow crinkled as he mused, “You must be Minoru’s…father…?”

“Wha…?” Misaki gaped at the guy. Was he really that stupid?

Anna covered her mouth as a light, melodic noise flitted from her that Misaki realized was a laugh. Smoothing her features back into blank apathy, she reached up and tugged on Totsuka’s shirt to get his attention. He was still wearing a confused look of one puzzling over what the relation could be between Misaki and Minoru.

“Brother,” Anna said.

“Ah, yes, of course,” Totsuka winked at Misaki, and Misaki wondered if the weird guy had done that only for Anna’s amusement, “You’re Minoru’s older brother, is it?”

At that moment, Minoru rediscovered his voice, “W-w-why were you talking about me?”

Anna looked at Minoru with an interest, and Minoru ducked his blush covered face again. Misaki narrowed his eyes, examining his little brother. A thought occurred to him, and he folded his arms over his chest and laughed.

“Hey Minoru,” Misaki declared proudly, “You do have a friend at school!”

“MIIISSSAAAKKKKIIII!” the blood-curdling shriek cut off whatever rude response Minoru looked prepared to throw Misaki’s way.

In an instant, Misaki was at the sandbox beside Megumi, his skateboard tossed to one side. A cursory once over, and he could see she wasn’t harmed. Her mounds she’d been forming into castle-like structures were scattered and kicked around. She was sobbing, though her face was dry.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m right here, no more crying,” Misaki soothed.

“They ruined it,” Megumi whined. Misaki looked around until he spotted a couple younger kids running around nearby. They likely trampled through her dirt piles without realizing what she was doing.

“I don’t think they meant it, monster,” he assured her, rubbing circles on her back.

“You’re such a crybaby, Megumi,” Minoru complained, only to swallow his words when Anna walked over to stand in front of his brother and sister. Megumi’s sobs receded into half-hearted sighs, as she stared wide-eyed at the pale, expressionless girl watching her.

“Your dress is pretty,” Megumi said, sniffling loudly.

“Thank you,” Anna replied, kneeling on the edge of the sandbox, “May I help you build a new castle?”

Megumi wiped a hand across her face and nodded. Misaki sighed, standing and brushing himself off, leaving the girls to the sand. He was surprised when Minoru dropped to his knees beside Megumi, watching in awe as Anna helped his little sister gather sand into piles.

“That was impressive,” Totsuka was positively glowing as he looked at Misaki in wide-eyed wonder, “One second you were there, and the next…I didn’t even have time to blink. You’re very quick.”

“Ah…that is…” Embarrassed, Misaki searched himself for a reply and came up empty handed.

“That would be your little sister, then?” Totsuka surmised, leading the way towards a bench they could both sit on. Totsuka started up his video recorder and pointed it in the direction of the children.

“Yeah. Megumi,” Misaki slumped over his knees, already exhausted from the day.

“I hope this is alright,” Totsuka lowered the recorder and turned to Misaki with the most somber expression he’d worn since they first encountered one another, “We’ve interrupted your day at the park with your brother and sister.”

“It’s fine. We’re here celebrating Minoru’s birthday, actually,” Misaki hesitated before continuing, not sure how much of his family’s life story he wanted to reveal to a complete stranger, especially one who’s ward apparently shared a class with Minoru, “Someone suggested he might like spending the day with me. Turns out they were wrong. He seems happy of Anna’s interruption, though.”

“To be honest, I was surprised that Anna approached you and your brother,” Totsuka said.

“You mean she doesn’t do that all the time?” Misaki blurted out, then winced as he realized how rude that sounded. Totsuka laughed despite, and Misaki relaxed. There was something pleasant, soothing about the way that man laughed. It was like the universe reaching out to give Misaki a pat on the back.

“No, no, she doesn’t. She’s really quite shy. She likes to come to the park and look at the fish. She’ll watch the other children playing, but she never joins. Even when someone from school shows up, she hides behind me until they leave, in case they recognize her,” Totsuka explained, “That’s why, when she took off running earlier, I didn’t know how to react. I know I should be sterner but, despite her age, she’s already lived a hard life. I can’t help indulging her. Besides, I thought, if Anna felt comfortable approaching Yata, he must be a good person.”

“That’s really weird,” Misaki said, less surprised when Totsuka laughed at his bluntness again. “If we’re being honest, I was glad when Anna came over. That there’s someone at school Minoru might be able to have a friendship with, that makes me happy. He had problems getting along with the other students at his last school and he really didn’t want to move to this school…”

“Oh? Why is that?” Totsuka leaned his cheek in a hand and looked thoughtful a moment, “I would think if he didn’t get along with anyone at his old school, he’d be happy to move somewhere new.”

“I don’t know. I guess he felt like he already knew where he stood with everyone at the old place, you got to relearn everything in a new school,” Misaki said.

“If that’s the case, then there’s something exciting and hopeful about going somewhere new, isn’t there? If you’re somewhere that you know everyone dislikes you, it’s depressing to go through the same thing, everyday, but if you have a chance to go somewhere different, that’s also a chance for things to be different,” Totsuka said.

“Maybe that’s why,” Misaki sighed, “Sometimes it’s harder to have hope, because now you’ve got something that can be taken away.”

Totsuka stared at Misaki until he flustered.

“S-sorry…that was a weird thing to say,” Misaki stammered, and then groaned when Megumi crashed into his lap and grinned up at him.

“Can we go with Anna to see the fish?” she asked, “Please, Misaki, please, please, please?”

Misaki looked up to see Anna standing a few paces back with her hands clasped. Minoru was beside her looking sheepish.

“If that’s what you guys want to do, sure,” he said.

“Go on ahead, we’ll follow after,” Totsuka told Anna.

“Just hold on to your sister,” Misaki instructed Minoru. The children hurried towards the ponds, as Totsuka and Misaki gathered their things. Misaki started after the children and Totsuka caught him by the elbow.

“It wasn’t a weird thing to say,” Totsuka said, “But I do think it’s odd you believe hope is something that can be taken away. For me, I believe that yyou always have hope and every day is a chance for things to get better. Look at today, this morning I had no reason to hope Anna would make friends at the park, she hasn’t in all the years I’ve been taking her here. Now we’ve met you and your siblings, it seems Anna and your brother may have a chance to be friends. Isn’t that proof that hope perseveres?”

“I guess,” Misaki shrugged, uncertain of his own feelings in that moment. He fell in step beside Totsuka, as they followed the trail towards the ponds and wondered if meeting strangers at the park proved anything and was ‘hope’ a thing he could even afford.

The rest of the day was surprisingly pleasant. Misaki invited Anna to eat his share of the bento he’d packed, and then Minoru offered up part of his cake to the quiet girl. When they left, Minoru seemed excited at the idea of seeing Anna at school on Monday, but he immediately fell back into reclusion with his bug as soon as they returned to Miss Tegui’s. Still, Misaki realized, there was hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totsuka, Anna, and the rest of HOMRA's main group will have major roles in the story. Totsuka and Yata are going to become the "dad's at the park", hanging out while their children play. Next chapter, Fushimi reappears, but it'll be a blink and you'll miss him moment.


	13. Chapter 13

Between searching for a place to live and dreading upcoming Fridays, the rest of the month training under Mrs. Atsuji was over before Misaki knew it. She told him it was her last day as they hung their aprons, getting ready to head out. He stared at her as though waiting for the “gotcha”.

“You’re ready to do this on your own?” she asked, leading the way down the courtyard to the front gate. Misaki shivered as the chill air pressed around them.

“If I say ‘no’, will you stick around for another month?” he replied, half-joking.

“You’re going to do just fine,” She smiled plaintively, brushing her fingers against his forearm, “I’ll admit, I wasn’t certain when I first saw you if you could handle the job. Hisoka gave a good recommendation, though. For once in her life.”

“Thank you for all your help, and taking such good care of me,” Misaki said, bowing at his waist.

“Here are the keys to the household,” Mrs. Atsuji pressed the keyring into Misaki’s palm, “Hisoka has my contact information if you need anything. Don’t hesitate.”

“Thank you,” Misaki went to bow again and she caught his shoulders.

“There are some things I need to tell you first. The husband hasn’t been back this month. That was on purpose. He knows I’m leaving, and that I’m training someone new. He didn’t want to give me a chance to show you how best to handle him,” Mrs. Atsuji said, “Once he knows I’m gone, he’ll make an appearance and he’ll be looking for you.”

“Is he really that bad?” Misaki wondered, while his mind conjured images of Tatsuo. He was certain nothing could be worse than that man.

The past Friday hadn’t gone much better than Misaki’s first Friday as the jerk’s personal dinner server. The rest of the restaurant staff continued to ignore him, Tatsuo’s entourage entertained themselves tormenting him, and Tatsuo took advantage of every opportunity to put his hands on Misaki. But Misaki was better prepared for it. He was careful never to be alone in a private space with Tatsuo, and kept tabs on where the older man was at all times. Painful as it had been to hear, it actually helped Misaki to know what his coworkers thought of the situation, because he now knew what to expect of them: nothing. He didn’t bother with trying for friendly conversation or greeting them, he could focus on keeping his head down and getting through the night.

“Fushimi Niki…takes getting used to,” Mrs. Atsuji delicately explained. She put her hands in her pockets and sighed, “But what he won’t know is this: the day he arrives, have Hisoka call me. Understand? I’ll guide you through it.”

“Okay, sure. It won’t be a bother?”

“The husband is always a bother. But I can’t consider you properly trained until you’ve had experience with him. That would be a dereliction of my responsibilities,” Mrs. Atsuji said, buttoning her jacket closed, “Now hurry. You have your other job to get to, correct?”

“Y-yeah…it just feels weird to take off without…” Misaki trailed off, not sure what he could offer for Mrs. Atsuji’s last day of work. It was strange to think she wouldn’t be there when he came to the Estate on Monday.

“No good-byes,” Mrs. Atsuji gave Misaki’s arm a slight squeeze as she continued down the path, “We’ll see each other again.”

“O-oh-okay, if you say so,” Misaki hurried to follow.

They parted at the gate, Misaki making it to the noodle restaurant just as the dinner rush started. He served a few tables before Tatsuo arrived. As soon as the older man waltzed through the front door, warning bells went off in Misaki’s head. Tatsuo was alone. He met Misaki’s eyes, a smirk playing in the corner of his lip, and then he disappeared to his usual private room. Misaki closed his eyes and counted to ten, trying to smooth his features into his best impression of impassivity.

Inside of the room, Tatsuo had made himself comfortable. His jacket set to one side, his sleeves rolled up, legs folded over one another. He watched Misaki enter the room with a half-raised brow, leaning back in the booth.

“Just you tonight?” Misaki asked, order pad at the ready. He hovered in the room entrance, unwilling to trap himself alone with Tatsuo.

“Unless you’d like to send for another server, sit and keep me company,” Tatsuo said.

“Why the hell would I do that?” Misaki grit out evenly.

“There’s the five-star customer service that keeps me coming back for more,” Tatsuo laughed, examining his nails as he explained, “Friday nights are really a difficult time for my motley crew to assemble every week. We all have busy nightlives, you see, and the weekends are our bread and butter. You should consider working Tuesday or Wednesday nights.”

“Can’t,” Misaki replied, tapping his order pad with his pen impatiently and trying to hide his impatience at Tatsuo treating his work schedule like setting up a date night, “Friday is my only night here. So, if you want my personalized service, this is the time.”

Tatsuo leaned a cheek in his hand and smiled, “Wear a French Maid’s dress for me. I have one in the car.”

“Warm bottle of sake to start?” Misaki asked loudly.

“I won’t even ask that you put on the hat. Just the dress. Oh, and the stockings, of course, the heels,” Tatsuo said.

“I’ll put the order in,” Misaki rushed from the room.

Tatsuo hadn’t brought up the clothes those past couple Fridays. He wondered if the older man’s friends didn’t know about his weird profession. It seemed farfetched. At the bar, Misaki didn’t find much reprieve. His coworkers were giving him stranger looks than usual. It took several minutes for it to register that he had left the private room rather flustered, and it was too much to ask that no one noticed Tatsuo’s solitary arrival. Misaki grabbed the tray of warm sake from the bartender with a harsh, “thanks”, ignoring the disgusted grunt he received in reply. He brought the sake back to the room and reluctantly set it up on the table.

“Do you know what you want to eat yet or should I come back,” Misaki demanded.

“Why?” Tatsuo pulled a silver tin from his jacket and opened it, a handful of hand-rolled cigarettes inside. He selected one and set it on his lip. Misaki bit his tongue on pointing out that there was no smoking in the restaurant. He felt certain the owner would make an exception for the Yakuza’s son.

“Why _what_?”

“Why is Friday the only night you can work here? Is it your other job?” Tatsuo asked.

“Th-that’s none of your business.”

Tatsuo lit the cigarette, took a drag and gestured at the table, smoke flitting from his minutely parted lips, “Pour my drink.”

“Can’t you pour it yourself?” Misaki retorted sharply, regretting the words as soon as they were out of his mouth.

Tatsuo grinned around his cigarette like a wolf. His hand shot out too fast to react, snatching Misaki’s wrist and tugging him off his feet. In the span of a heartbeat, their positions were near reversed. Misaki hit the back of the booth with a hard thump, and Tatsuo was standing over him, wrist pinned over his head, and chin in Tatsuo’s pinched grip.

“Do you know that I like your feistiness?” Tatsuo’s lip was curled back over his perfectly polished teeth, his face was close enough Misaki could feel the older man’s hot breath against his cheek.

“Let me go,” Misaki tried for commanding, but only managed to sound like a petulant child. Tatsuo barked out a laugh, twisting Misaki’s arm down and around his backside, effectively wrapping Tatsuo’s arm around Misaki’s waist. Misaki’s other hand came up to push Tatsuo away, but it had no effect, the older man had the leverage.

“Do you also know that I’m not stupid?” Tatsuo jeered.

“Who said you were?” Misaki challenged, paling as Tatsuo brought a knee up on the booth, practically sitting in his lap now.

“You’re not just here because I wanted you here. You’re here because you need to be here,” Tatsuo continued, the hand gripping Misaki’s chin leaving to trail a thumb up along the side of Misaki’s face and fingers lacing through the ginger colored hair, none-too-gently yanking Misaki’s head forward, “Right, Misaki?”

“Let me go,” Misaki repeated, narrowing his eyes in what he hoped looked like a threatening expression. His hopes were dashed when Tatsuo laughed at him. Misaki swallowed back his anger and whispered, “Please, let me go.”

“And why should I do that?” Tatsuo was playing with Misaki’s hair now, curling the strands loosely around his fingertips.

“I get it, okay. I was being rude. I’m sorry. You want me to be nice. _Fine_. I’ll be nice,” Misaki said, hating that he was apologizing to that jerk. Again. Hating that he knew there was no one outside the door that would come if he called for help. Hating how much he sounded like he was begging.

Tatsuo leaned his face close, words a warm blast against Misaki’s mouth, “Right answer.”

The older man stepped back, releasing the younger. Misaki was on his feet at once, stumbling a few feet towards the door, desperate to put space between them. Tatsuo was straightening his clothes as he retook his seat.

“Put in an order for two bowls of udon, my usual,” Tatsuo said, watching amusedly as Misaki tried to recompose himself, running fingers through his hair in a frantic attempt to get the feeling of Tatsuo’s touch off his scalp, “And bring a second cup for the sake with you when you return.”

“So, you got someone else coming after all,” Misaki murmured.

“It’s for you.”

Misaki’s eyes flashed up in confusion on the older man. Tatsuo offered him a crooked smile.

“I never dine alone.”

“I’m not old enough to drink,” Misaki said pathetically. It was the best protest he could manage at that point.

Tatsuo scoffed, his eyes glinting darkly in the room’s low light, “I didn’t ask.”

Several tens of minutes later, Misaki sat uncomfortable in the booth next to Tatsuo, enduring their dinner together. He picked at the noodles in his soup and sipped a cup of sake. It was his first time drinking the stuff, the taste wasn’t what he thought it would be, and he tried to hide the disgusted wrinkling of his nose whenever he had to sip it – which was often. His inexperience with alcohol only delighted Tatsuo, who insisted he drink more and more, giggling at how a single cup left Misaki pink in the face. He made Misaki pour the alcohol, and fetch a second bottle when the first was empty. He also asked Misaki to bring back two appetizer platters, and demanded that Misaki feed him, chopsticks were fine for the noodles, but Tatsuo demanded Misaki use his hands to place the gyoza into Tatsuo’s mouth, catching the younger boy’s hand and licking his fingers clean as Misaki grit his teeth and ignored the pounding of his heart, fluster in his chest, the urge to pull his hand away and break the sake bottle over Tatsuo’s head.

Tatsuo spoke the entire time of his photography studio, bragging about the number of models he had recruited, and the types of photos they took. He pulled out his phone at one point, swiping through image after image of youthful boys and girls in sensual cosplay posing suggestively. Lightheaded from the alcohol, Misaki lost the fight against his blush. He didn’t know whether he would sigh in relief or vomit on the floor when Tatsuo finally announced he was done for the night. Tatsuo slid his arm around Misaki’s waist, his chin nestled on Misaki’s shoulder, as he slipped the usual fat roll of yen into Misaki’s apron, his hand lingering there, as they sat side-by-side on the booth.

“What do I have to do to make you quit the other job, come model for me?” Tatsuo said, lips brushing against Misaki’s neck.

Misaki stood abruptly, pulling from Tatsuo’s grasp, and beginning to bus the table, “If that’s it for dinner, I’ll clear these dishes. Thank you for coming.”

Tatsuo sighed haggardly and gathered his jacket. He paused a moment in the door, “I’ll see you next Friday, Misaki.”

When Misaki left the restaurant, he found a few of the servers outside on break, including Riho. They watched him with knowing looks, as if they knew _anything_ about what Misaki went through in that room, whispering amongst themselves. He lowered his eyes, hugging his skateboard to himself and walking towards home, feet unsteady beneath him from the drink. He braced against the cold air, its icy tendrils slipping between the gaps in his clothes to nip at every inch of his flesh. In the quiet of Miss Tegui’s house, everyone else slumbering peacefully, he took a bath, scrubbing his skin raw until the warm water turned cold and he felt certain he’d never get the feel of Tatsuo off of him.

In the morning, Minoru woke Misaki with a light kick to his side.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Misaki grumbled, pushing himself up to sitting and glaring out through half-lidded eyes. Minoru was standing over him, hands on his hips. Megumi was seated at the kotatsu with a bucket of crayons, watching her brothers.

“You slept in. Miss Tegui said to let you. You missed breakfast,” Minoru said, “But it’s almost ten now. Can we go to the park?”

“Ten? Really? Shit,” Misaki slumped, rubbing his throbbing head. It had been years since he’d slept in so late. He felt weird, as though every light and sound were sharp and pricking at him from all angles.

“You said a bad word,” Megumi announced in a singsong voice that was like nails scraping the inside of Misaki’s skull.

“Shut up,” Misaki pulled himself to his feet and stumbled down the hall into the bathroom. He took a piss and then threw up the few contents of his stomach. When he returned to the family room, Miss Tegui had joined Megumi at the kotatsu with the newspaper and a cup of tea. She eyed Misaki over her glasses.

“Coming down with something?” she asked.

“No,” Misaki mumbled, heading into the kitchen for a glass of water. His throat and mouth parched, feeling coated in a thin layer of sand.

“Misaki, can we go to the park?” Minoru persisted when Misaki returned.

“Please, Misaki, can we? Please, please?” Megumi chimed in.

Misaki frowned at the two. They’d gone back the Saturday after Minoru’s birthday, finding Anna and Totsuka there again. It seemed Minoru wanted to make this a ritual. Any other morning, Misaki would be all for it, spending time with Totsuka while the kids played with Anna had a certain calming affect after his long nights with Tatsuo, it was as though he could be a normal person in those moments, but that morning was not any other morning and the park felt like the last place he wanted to go.

Miss Tegui’s cold hand touched Misaki’s forehead and he startled at the sudden contact. When had she crossed the room and snuck up on him?

“You don’t have a fever,” she noted.

“I told you, I’m not coming down with something,” Misaki said. She gave him a hard look, and then suddenly pinched his cheek. He made a face at her, yanking away from her reach, “Ow! What the hell? What did I do?”

“I don’t know,” Miss Tegui narrowed her eyes on him, scrutinizing him a moment, before reaching over to tug his shirt down, smoothing out the wrinkles, an oddly maternal motion that ached through Misaki. She said, “I’ll take the little ones to the park, if you want to rest some.”

“I mean, I’d really appreciate it,” Misaki mumbled, sighing, “But…”

“No! I want Misaki to take us,” Megumi screamed.

“Ugh, Megumi, you’re such a cry baby! Who even wants Misaki there?” Minoru complained, “Can’t I just go by myself? I’m ten, I’m a man, now!”

“…I don’t want to burden you,” Misaki looked warily at his siblings and then met Miss Tegui’s steady gaze. He rubbed a hand over his face and said, “I can take them. Do you mind just getting them ready while I clean up and get dressed?”

“Of course,” Miss Tegui caught Misaki’s elbow, scrutinizing him again. He shifted uncomfortably under her searching eyes.

“What?”

Miss Tegui pursed her lips and let him go, “You know, it’s okay to do something for yourself, once in a while. Just be careful, alright?”

“I don’t understand you,” Misaki grumbled, heading back to the bathroom to wash his face and change for the day.

When they got to the park, Minoru and Megumi were disappointed that Totsuka and Anna were nowhere in sight. Misaki forced a smile, and tried to be positive, they might show up later. In the meantime, the sun was bright and the playground was relatively empty, might as well make the most of it. He let Minoru use his skateboard and took a seat with Megumi at the sandbox.

If Misaki were pressed to admit it though, he was disappointed too. He’d been looking forward to human interaction that didn’t make his skin crawl or leave him feeling like he was racking up new debts he could never repay. So, after a half hour of nursing the world’s worst headache while entertaining his overly exuberant little sister – how come he never realized how shrill her voice was? – and his broody little brother, when Totsuka and Anna did show up, he hopped to his feet in unmasked excitement.

“Hey, you’re here!” he exclaimed, grinning and waving at the two.

Anna was predictably nonplussed in her usual layers of lace and crushed velvet while Totsuka laughed with barely contained amusement gleaming in his eyes, “Oh? Were you waiting for us?”

“Ah…n-no, it was just…” Misaki flustered, embarrassed, which only prompted another laugh from Totsuka.

“Yata really is a kind person,” Totsuka declared, “Greeting us enthusiastically and making us feel so welcome! Anna, why don’t you go see Minoru and Megumi.”

Wordlessly, Anna went to join the youngest Yata siblings while Totsuka gestured Misaki towards the bench. Misaki rubbed at the back of his neck, approaching sheepishly.

“Sorry about that, I just…”

“Sorry about what? Have you done something wrong?” Totsuka blinked at him, genuinely taken aback, as he took a seat and started setting up his video recorder to film the park.

“It’s probably weird for me to be so happy to see someone I just met,” Misaki awkwardly explained.

“But I’m happy to see you too, Yata, it’s been nice coming to the park and visiting with you and your siblings. It’s nice to have someone to talk with, don’t you think?” Totsuka smiled.

Misaki relaxed, surprised at how easily Totsuka seemed to understand his exact feelings. He leaned over his knees, rest his head in his hands, and sighed, “Thanks, Totsuka.”

“Hm? Are you alright today? You seem less lively than usual,” Totsuka observed, lowering his camera and examining Misaki with less intensity than Miss Tegui yet the same measure of concern.

“Yeah, I…” Misaki hesitated a moment, before confessing, “I had some alcohol last night and I’ve never drank before, so…”

“Ah, I see,” Totsuka looked inexplicably relieved. He softened his voice, if that were at all possible, and lowered the volume considerably, “You’re hung over. You should have some clear onion soup. It’s my go to cure for a hangover.”

“O-oh, yeah? I’ll try that,” Misaki settled into the conversation, nodding as Totsuka continued to offer a few more tidbits of hangover remedy advice. He wasn’t sure why he felt so comfortable telling Totsuka about drinking _sake_ the night before, he just felt unguarded around the other man. He vaguely wondered if something like this could become his normal. He thought even the Friday dinner service for Tatsuo could be bearable, if he could look forward to a Saturday relaxing at the park, talking with Totsuka. Was it too much to wish that nothing changed again?

But things had already changed again, and Misaki felt that most when he arrived at the Fushimi Estate on Monday morning and Mrs. Atsuji wasn’t there to meet him at the gate. He took a deep breath, made his way up the courtyard, exchanged his shoes at the door for guest slippers, and began the routine he’d followed every day for a month with Mrs. Atsuji, noticeably quieter without the serene companionship of the older woman.

At least, until he reached the third room on the second floor. He opened the door, saw the pile of clothes on the ground and lump under blankets on the bed, and, mind drawing a blank on what else to do, he immediately and, as quietly as possible, closed the door again. He hurried down the stairs, retreating to the kitchen to sort his thoughts. Mrs. Atsuji had warned him before leaving, but she’d made it sound like he had time to settle into being the only housekeeper before it happened. Yet, there was no mistaking, someone was sleeping upstairs in that bedroom and there was only one explanation for who: the husband, Fushimi Niki, was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes. I know. I've sort of been neglecting this story. I will refocus once I get other things out of the way and out of my brain. Might end up with the time to do that soon, my company is thinking about having us all work from home as part of their business continuance plan during the pandemic. We're living in a global pandemic right now, how cool is that? Hopefully, no one is seriously affected, all of you are washing your hands, and using alcohol based sanitizers. 
> 
> For now, here's Saruhiko in his blink and you'll miss him moment. Next chapter, Misaki and Saruhiko will actually have a full conversation.


End file.
